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The  Christian  in  Hungarian 
Romance 


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(]irls  and  women  of  Toroczko. 

(See  p.  88)  Frontispiect 


The  Christian  in  Hun- 
garian Romance 


A  Study  of  Dr.  Maurus  Jokai's  Novel, 

"  There  is  a  God  ;  or,  The  People 

Who  Love  but  Once" 


John     Fretwell 


"Fortior  est  qui  se,  quam  quis  fortissima  vituit 
Mania." 


Boston,  U.S.A.:   James  H.  West  Company 
London:  Philip  Green,  5,  Essex  st.,  Strand,  W.  C. 


Copyright,  1 901 

By  John  Fretwell 

^^ 

All  rights  reserved 

Entered  at  the  Library  of  Congress, 

Washington,  D.C.,  U.S.A. 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London,  Eng. 

Printed  in  the  United  States. 


To  Dr.   Maurus  Jokai,  '    ' 

Budapest : 

When  I  first  met  you,  in  June,  1873,  ^  knew  noth- 
ing of  your  native  tongue  but  what  I  had  learned  from 
Vordsmarty's  translation  of  "Julius  Cxsar."  But 
that  was  merely  a  rendering  of  Shakespearean  thought 
into  Magyar  verse ;  and  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  soul  of  your  people  I  turned  to  your  romances. 

If  I  have  been  able  to  interest  my  people,  here  and 
in  Old  England,  in  the  affairs  of  Hungary,  my  success 
is  due  in  no  small  degree  to  the  truths  which  I  found 
clothed  by  you  in  the  garb  of  fiction. 

To  speak  of  the  literary  merits  of  your  masterpieces 
is  no  longer  necessary  ;  they  are  known  to  all  students 
of  World-Literature  ;  but  the  work  which  you  have 
done  for  Hungary,  like  that  of  Charles  Dickens  for 
England,  aiding  by  your  romances  the  liberal  thinkers 
and  workers  of  your  time,  can  be  appreciated  only  by 
those  who  have  lived  among  your  people. 

In  recognition  of  these  facts  I  dedicate  to  you  the 
accompanying  study  of  one  of  your  works,  which, 
though  widely  appreciated  in  Germany,  is  still  unpub- 
lished in  America. 

Sincerely,  yours, 

John  Fretwell. 

Providence,  April,  1901. 


List  of  Illustrations 

PAOB 

Girls  and  women  of  Toroczko      .     .      .  Frontispiece 

Toroczko,  the  birthplace  of  Jokai  's  hero,  Ma- 

nasseh  Adoryan 88 

Copy   of   medal   showing    primitive  method   of 

mining  and  smelting  at  Toroczko  ...      96 

The  design  on  the  cover  is  a  copy  of  the  seal  of  the 
Bishop  of  the  Unitarians  in  Hungary. 

(4) 


Contents 


Introduction 

7 

I. 

The  Vampire  City  of  Austri 

1   .       23 

II. 

The  Friend  in  Need  .     .     . 

.       29 

III. 

Passion  Week  in  Rome  .     . 

•       39 

IV. 

Diplomacy 

.       47 

V. 

The  Temptress      .     .     . 

.      55 

VI. 

A  Roman  Assassination 

.      62 

VII. 

The  Pope's  Flight      .     . 

.     .      70 

VIII. 

What  will  He  do  with  Her 

>    .      76 

IX. 

The  Vampire  City  Again 

.    .       82 

X. 

In  Transylvania     .     .     . 

.    .       89 

XI. 

The  Last  Revenge     .     . 

.     .      96 

XII. 

Solferino 

.     .     102 

XIII. 

Retribution 

.     .     106 

XIV. 

The  Return  of  the  Prodigal 

.     no 

Notes 

.     .     115 

(5) 


In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions. 

—  John  i^y  2. 

Nay  ;  lest,  while  ye  gather  up  the  tares,  ye  root  up 
also  the  wheat  with  them.  Let  both  grow  together 
until  the  harvest.  —  Matt,  ij,  20. 

He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the  mighty, 
and  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a  city. 

—  Proverbs  16,  32. 

The  Latin  verse  on  the  title-page  is  a  paraphrase 
of  the  above  proverb,  and  was  adopted  by  the  gov- 
ernors of  Klausenburg  Castle,  in  Transylvania,  as  the 
motto  for  their  coat-of-arms. 

What  makes  all  doctrines  plain  and  clear  ? 
About  two  hundred  pounds  a  year. 
And  that  which  was  proved  true  before 
Prove  false  again  ?  two  hundred  more. 

—  Butler  *s  "HuMras.'* 

The  hand  that  rounded  Peter's  dome. 
And  groined  the  aisles  of  Christian  Rome, 
Wrought  in  a  sad  sincerity  ; 
Himself  from  God  he  could  not  free ; 
He  builded  better  than  he  knew ;  — 
The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew. 

—  Emerson. 
(6) 


Introduction 

IN  the  preface  to  a  translation  of  Maurus 
Jokai's  novel,  "  There  is  no  Devil "  [Cassell 
Publishing  Co.,  New  York],  the  editor  says 
that  he  considers  that  novel  better  suited  to 
the  taste  of  American  readers  than  any  of 
Jokai's  previous  works.  Inasmuch  as  this 
great  master  of  fiction  has  published  more 
than  three  hundred  novels  and  stories,  it  can 
hardly  be  expected  that  all  of  them  should 
be  masterpieces ;  and  the  above-named  ro- 
mance (afterwards  republished  under  another 
title,  "  Dr.  Dumany's  Wife ")  represents  the 
country  squires  of  Hungary  in  a  disgusting 
light,  —  even  the  hero.  Dr.  Dumany,  owing 
his  great  fortune  not  to  any  beneficent  enter- 


8  Introduction 

prise,  but  only  to  some  of  those  lucky  spec- 
ulations on  the  Stock  Exchange  which  give 
him  wealth  at  the  cost  of  other  people's  loss. 
The  remark  above  quoted,  therefore,  is  as 
though  one  should  say  that  "The  Rape  of 
Lucrece,"  by  William  Shakespeare,  is  better 
suited  to  American  readers  than  the  dram- 
atist's great  masterpieces. 

I  venture  herewith  to  introduce  to  my 
readers  one  of  Jokai's  masterpieces,  in  which 
not  the  denial  of  the  Devil's  existence,  but 
the  assertion  of  God's  existence,  is  the  key- 
note. 

Those  who  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to 
read  the  works  of  the  four  great  princes  in 
the  realm  of  Hungarian  romance,  Kem6ny, 
Josika,  Eotvos  and  Jokai,  will  appreciate  the 
picturesque  effect  caused  not  only  by  the 
variety  of  nationalities,  but  also  of  ecclesias- 
tical organizations,  in  the  history  of  Hun- 
gary's easternmost  province,  once  called  by 
the  Romans  Dacia,  or  Transylvania,  — "  the 
land  beyond  the  forests."     It  was  the  field 


Introduction  g 

of  battle  between  the  Roman,  the  Dacian, 
the  Teuton,  and  the  Hun ;  between  the 
Moslem  and  the  Giaour,  between  the  Bo- 
hemian Hussite  and  the  Austrian  tools  of 
Rome;  —  and  there,  since  1568,  the  Jew,  the 
Armenian,  the  Russo-Greek,  the  Latin-Greek, 
the  Nazarene,  the  Romanist,  the  Lutheran, 
the  Calvinist  and  the  Unitarian  have  dwelt  in 
close  proximity,  —  sometimes  in  bitter  con- 
flict, sometimes  in  a  forced  and  sullen  truce, 
and  seldom  if  ever  in  Christian  harmony. 

In  Kem^ny's  romances,  which,  pessimistic 
as  they  may  be,  are  "rammed  with  life,"  we 
read  of  the  savage  intolerance  of  the  Calvin- 
ist, the  noble  steadfastness  under  persecution 
of  the  Sabbatarian  enthusiasts,  and  the  depre- 
dations of  the  Moslem  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  Josika  tells  us  the 
story  of  Transylvania  under  Bathori  and 
Rakoczi,  and  of  the  campaigns  of  the  great 
Corvinus  against  the  Hussite  Czechs.  But 
Jokai  is  the  only  one  who,  in  such  a  setting 
as  this,  has  made  a  man  who  honestly  tries 


10  Introduction 

to  imitate  Jesus  the  hero  of  a  Hungarian 
romance,  —  as  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton,  Mrs. 
Humphrey  Ward,  Hall  Caine,  and  others, 
have  made  their  characters  to  do  in  other 
countries  and  under  other  conditions. 

And  Jokai  brings  his  creation  into  contact 
with  the  most  stirring  scenes  of  the  revolu- 
tion and  reaction  in  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury just  closed,  in  the  two  countries  which 
suffered  most  under  the  misrule  of  the  Vienna 
Camarilla,  Hungary  and  Italy.  He  depicts 
many  differing  types  in  the  Catholic  Church, — 
the  head  of  its  Roman  branch,  Pio  Nono,  flee- 
ing from  the  post  of  duty  and  betraying  the 
Christian  cause  to  his  interests  as  a  temporal 
prince;  the  Unitarian  renegade,  Vaydar,  be- 
come a  Romanist  for  revenue  only,  telling  his 
innocent  victim  that  "  there  is  many  a  church 
in  Rome,  but  no  God  " ;  the  Calvinist  lawyer, 
knowing  not  the  spirit,  but  only  the  letter, 
both  of  the  law  and  the  gospel,  and  forsaking 
the  faith  of  his  fathers  to  marry  a  Romanist 
widow,  —  to   repent   of    his    act   within    six 


Introduction  ii 

months  of  the  wedding ;  the  young  baroness, 
bred  in  a  convent,  relying  implicitly  on  the 
sacraments  to  save  her  from  temptation,  and, 
when  these  fail  her,  giving  herself  implicitly 
to  the  man  whom  she  was  taught  to  regard  as 
a  heathen;  the  clever  temptress,  beginning 
life  as  man's  plaything  and  becoming  his 
heartless  tyrant,  —  regarding  the  sacraments 
of  her  church  only  as  a  talisman  which  enables 
her  to  sin  with  impunity;  and  finally,  the 
young  diplomatist,  free  from  illusions,  yet 
recognizing  the  poetry  at  the  heart  of  all 
religions,  —  who  imitates  as  a  man  the  Jesus 
whom  he  cannot  worship  as  a  God ;  going 
unarmed  and  unharmed  through  countless 
dangers  to  save  his  friends  and  his  country,  — 
the  only  truly  Catholic  man  in  the  story,  the 
Unitarian,  Manasseh  Adoryan. 

Since  both  the  villain  and  the  hero  of  the 
novel  begin  as  "Unitarians,"  it  may  be  well 
to  indicate  the  difference  between  their  en- 
vironments and  those  of  their  Unitarian 
brethren  in  England  and  America. 


12  Introduction 

With  us,  as  in  the  parable,  the  tares  and 
the  wheat  are  both  allowed  to  grow  up 
together,  and  all  forms  of  faith  and  worship 
which  do  not  affect  the  civil  rights  of  others 
are  permitted,  in  the  belief  that  the  truest 
faith  will  arise  from  the  greatest  freedom; 
but  in  the  time  and  places  represented  in 
Jokai's  novel,  there  had  been  a  steady  per- 
secution of  the  Christians  ever  since  the 
burning  of  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague. 
Much  of  the  wheat  had  been  eradicated,  and 
the  tares  of  clericalism  were  allowed  to 
smother  the  rest.  Many  forms  of  Christian 
life  and  worship  which  in  America  and  Eng- 
land are  permitted  the  freest  development 
were  suppressed,  and  if,  as  in  Transylvania, 
some  Protestant  branches  of  the  Church 
Catholic  survived,  it  was  not  as  advancing 
armies,  making  new  gains  for  the  religious 
life,  but  as  garrisons  in  beleagured  cities, 
fighting  for  their  existence,  and  sure  to  be 
silenced  if  they  ventured  beyond  the  strict 
limits  of  their  chartered  creeds.     Only  for  a 


Introduction  i^ 

brief  period,  in  the  time  of  Shakespeare  and 
Queen  Elizabeth,  was  there  a  Unitarian  King 
of  Transylvania,  John  Sigismund,  who,  in 
1568  (seventy  years  before  Roger  Williams 
proclaimed  liberty  of  conscience  in  Rhode 
Island),  gave  to  the  Calvinist,  the  Lutheran, 
the  Unitarian,  and  others,  the  charters  which 
enabled  the  followers  of  Servetus  and  Socinus, 
even  after  the  union  with  Austria, 

**  To  pray,  as  when  the  Church  was  one. 
To  the  Father  through  the  Son. " 

Although  the  great  Unitarian  Apostle, 
Francis  David,  died  in  prison  during  the 
Romanist  reaction  under  the  Calvinist  Bathori 
(1571),  still  David's  followers  could  worship 
God  m  their  own  way,  even  at  the  time  when 
King  James  the  First  was  burning  Englishmen 
of  the  same  faith  in  Smithfield.  It  belongs 
to  the  ironies  of  history  that,  in  1609,  after 
this  king  had  harried  the  Puritans  out  of  Eng- 
land to  seek  shelter  in  Holland,  the  translators 
of  the  Racovian  Catechism,  the  Confession  of 


/-/  Introduction 

the  Polish  and  Transylvanian  Unitarians,  had 
still  such  faith  in  this  king  as  the  Champion 
of  Protestantism  that  they  dedicated  that 
translation  to  him.  It  was,  however,  pub- 
licly burned  in  1614;  but  with  it  there  had 
come  to  England  some  knowledge  of  the 
Church  in  Transylvania. 

In  1624,  Paul  Best,  an  English  country 
gentleman,  was  fighting  under  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  and  brought  back  to  England  news  of 
the  Socinian  and  Unitarian  Churches  in  Poland 
and  Transylvania.  Again,  in  1653,  when  the 
Racovian  Catechism  was  translated  into  Eng- 
lish and  publicly  burned  in  London,  and  when 
John  Biddle  published  a  life  of  Socinus,  we 
find  mention  of  them.  In  1687  they  are 
spoken  of  by  Firmin;  in  1777  by  Doctor 
Toulmin ;  and  in  1783  by  Theophilus  Lindsey, 
who,  nine  years  before,  had  founded  the  first 
avowedly  Unitarian  Church  in  England.  In 
18 18  Doctor  Thomas  Rees,  in  the  historical 
introduction  to  his  translation  of  the  Racovian 
Catechism,   published  the   story  of   Francis 


Introduction  75" 

David,  and  the  chaplain  of  Viscount  Strang- 
ford,  British  ambassador  at  Constantinople 
( 1 820-1 825),  gave  the  number  of  the  Uni- 
tarians in  Transylvania  as  45,000  in  a  total 
population  of  1,626,900. 

But  it  was  not  until  1825,  the  year  of 
Jokai's  birth,  that  any  official  communication 
came  from  them  to  England.  In  1822, 
Reverend  W.  J.  Fox,  secretary  of  the  Uni- 
tarian Fund  in  London,  sent  a  Latin  letter 
to  various  continental  universities,  with  a 
view  to  opening  correspondence  with  like- 
minded  men  abroad;  and  after  three  years 
there  came  a  letter  signed  by  George  Syl- 
vester," Episcopus  Unitariorum  in  Hungaria," 
commencing  the  first  official  intercourse  with 
the  Unitarians  of  Western  Europe.  In  1830 
Alexander  Farkas,  one  of  their  most  prom- 
inent laymen,  visited  both  Old  and  New  Eng- 
land, and  was  followed  by  Moses  Szekely, 
who,  in  visiting  the  Unitarian  College  at 
York,  —  the  modest  forerunner  of  Manches- 
ter College,  Oxford,  —  was  astonished  at  the 


i6  Introduction 

enormous  salary  (about  1^1500!)  enjoyed  by 
the  principal,  while  no  professor  in  Klausen- 
burg  had  more  than  $150  a  year  and  his 
lodging.  Perhaps  he  knew  nothing  of  the 
incomes  of  the  Romanist  bishops  in  Hun- 
gary and  of  the  Anglicans  in  England  {see 
Note  I). 

A  student  of  York  College,  Mr.  John 
Paget,  visited  them  in  1835,  and  in  his 
"Travels  in  Hungary  "  [  London,  1850],  page 
251,  he  writes :  "Their  churches  have  been 
taken  away  from  them,  and  given  in  turn  to 
the  Calvinist  and  the  Romanist.  Their  funds 
have  been  converted  to  other  purposes.  ..." 
But  he  continues :  "  They  are  said  to  be  dis- 
tinguished for  their  prudence  and  moderation 
in  politics,  their  industry  and  morality  in 
private  life,  and  the  superiority  of  their  educa- 
tion to  the  generality  of  those  of  their  own 
class." 

Following  Mr.  Paget's  visit  came  the  name- 
less horrors  of  that  time  described  by  Jokai 
in   the   romance   reviewed   in   the   following 


Introduction  ly 

pages.  Charles  L.  Brace  of  New  York,  who 
visited  Hungary  in  185 1,  was  not  permitted 
to  enter  Transylvania,  but  on  reaching  Gross- 
wardein  he  was  imprisoned  four  weeks  and 
sent  back,  accompanied  by  a  police-officer, 
to  the  German  frontier.  Yet,  though  he  did 
not  see  the  Unitarians,  what  he  tells  us  —  in 
his  book  entitled  "Hungary  in  185 1,  with  an 
Experience  of  the  Austrian  Police  "  [Scribner, 
New  York,  1852]  —  of  the  treatment  accorded 
to  the  three  millions  of  Calvinists  and  Lu- 
therans in  Austro-Hungary  is  quite  enough 
to  make  us  imagine  what  the  Unitarians  must 
have  suffered,  and  to  realize  the  joy  felt  by 
all  the  friends  of  liberty  in  Europe  when  the 
Crimean  War  gave  the  first  signal  for  the 
conflicts  which  were  at  last  to  deliver  them 
from  their  malignant  oppressors. 

The  concordat  between  the  Hapsburg  gov- 
ernment and  Pope  Pius  the  Ninth  (August  1 8, 
1855)  buried  the  last  remnant  of  Josephine 
Liberalism,  and  made  Austria  once  more  a 
paradise   for    clericalism;    and   in    1857  the 


l8  Introduction 

Unitarians  of  Transylvania  were  made  to  feel 
its  effects  in  an  attempt  to  bring  their  schools 
under  the  control  of  the  priest-ridden  govern- 
ment. To  save  them,  the  people,  mostly  poor 
farmers,  by  enormous  sacrifices  raised  1^72,000. 
But  this  sum  was  not  enough,  and  they  appealed 
to  the  two  Unitarian  Associations  in  London 
and  Boston. 

America  did  nothing  for  them,  but  England 
sent,  by  the  hands  of  the  Reverend  Edward 
Tagart,  enough  money  to  make  up  the  de- 
ficiency. It  is  remarkable  that  the  same 
monarch  under  whom,  as  Emperor  of  Austria, 
these  schools  were  threatened  with  such  gross 
injustice  in  1857,  visited  them,  as  King  of 
Hungary,  many  years  later,  and  expressed  to 
Bishop  Joseph  Ferencz  his  pleasure  at  what 
the  faculty  of  these  schools  was  doing  to  keep 
his  people  in  cordial  relations  with  England 
and  the  United  States  ! 

In  1869  an  insidious  proposition  was  made 
to  Bishop  Kriza,  then  the  oflicial  head  of  the 
Unitarian  body  in  Transylvania,  from  a  very 


Introduction  ig 

different  side.  An  ex-priest  addressed  to  him 
a  proposal  to  establish  a  Unitarian  Church  in 
Vienna,  of  which  the  ex-priest  wished  to  be 
made  the  superintendent.  A  copy  of  this 
letter  was  sent  by  Kriza  to  the  two  Associa- 
tions in  London  and  Boston,  and  the  secretary 
of  the  British  Association  referred  it  to  me. 
I  knew  nothing  of  the  writer,  but  I  did  know 
that  another  ex-priest,  who  on  insufficient 
grounds  had  been  called  by  his  German 
adherents  "the  Luther  of  the  Nineteenth 
century,"  was  then  at  work  in  Vienna, — 
perhaps  the  only  place  where  he  could  any 
longer  expect  to  be  called  a  Luther.  So  I 
said  to  our  secretary,  "  I  do  not  know  the 
writer,  but    I  would   advise  you   to   act   as 

though  it  were  signed  by ."     (In   i860, 

some  Unitarians  of  Manchester,  England, 
who  had  formed  a  committee  to  establish  a 
kindergarten  in  that  city,  published  in  a  news- 
paper their  withdrawal  from  it,  on  account  of 

its  connection  with .)     The  proposal  of 

the  ex-priest  was  rejected,  and,  a  few  weeks 


20  Introduction 

later,  the  man  who  made  it  was,  for  very  good 
reasons,  inside  a  Bavarian  prison. 

This  circumstance  induced  me,  during  the 
Vienna  Exhibition  of  1873,  to  make  my  first 
visit  to  Transylvania.  On  Trinity  Sunday  of 
that  year  I  accidentally  met  the  Reverend 
Doctor  Edward  Everett  Hale  of  Boston  in 
the  Vienna  streets,  and  on  the  following 
Sunday  he  and  I,  with  Professor  Sim6n  of 
Klausenburg  and  some  Transylvanian  officials 
of  the  Hungarian  government,  held  the  first 
public  Unitarian  service  in  Budapest.  The 
Reverend  R.  S.  Morison  came  later,  and, 
spending  six  weeks  among  the  churches  of 
Transylvania,  sent  an  account  of  them  to  the 
Unitarian  Review.  On  our  return  to  the 
United  States  we  started  a  movement  to  still 
further  strengthen  the  schools  which  had  so 
narrowly  escaped  perversion  in  1857. 

In  1875  I  was  again  in  Hungary,  and, 
while  at  Balaton  Fuered,  I  was  the  guest  of 
Maurus  Jokai,  who  has  many  times  —  in  1 848 
and  since,  for  the  sake  of  friends  and  conn- 


Introduction  21 

try  —  exposed  himself  to  risks  quite  as  incred- 
ible as  any  related  in  his  romance ;  but  in 
1875  he  saw  around  him  the  results  of  the 
Vienna  financial  crisis  of  1873,  and  remarked 
to  me  that  there  are  no  heroes  now-a-days. 
I  ventured  to  tell  him  of  a  few  whom  I  had 
known  in  America,  and  suggested  that  he 
might  still  find  heroes  in  Transylvania.  He 
went  there,  and  soon  after,  in  the  Feuilleton 
of  a  Budapest  Journal,  there  appeared  this 
romance,  under  the  title,  "Egy  az  Isten" 
("  One  is  the  Lord,"  or  "  There  is  a  God  "). 

Though  it  has  had  a  wide  circulation  in 
Germany  and  Hungary,  it  has  not  yet  been 
published  in  an  English  or  American  dress, 
so  I  have  compressed  its  760  pages  into  the 
following  study,  which  I  herewith  offer  to 
those  whose  brains  are  virile  enough  and 
whose  hearts  are  sensitive  enough  to  grasp 
the  deeper  meanings  of  Jokai's  masterpieces. 

J.    F. 
Providence,  R.  I.,  Easter,  igoi. 


The  Christian  in  Hun- 
garian Romance 


The  Vampire  City  of  Austria 

THOSE  who  know  Vienna  only  from  a  visit 
to  the  Exposition  of  1873,  or  from  later 
experiences,  might  be  inclined  to  dispute  the 
propriety  of  calling  it  a  Vampire  City.  But 
in  the  twenty-four  years  that  elapsed  between 
the  events  that  Jokai  describes  and  his  com- 
position of  the  novel  entitled  "  Egy  az  Isten," 
of  which  the  present  little  book  is  a  review, 
the  air  had  been  cleared  and  many  a  pest 
removed   by  the   Crimean   War,  the   Italian 


2^.         The  Vampire  City  of  Austria 

Campaign  of  1858,  the  Seven  Days'  War  of 
1 866,  and,  above  all,  the  Franco-German  War 
of  1870.  Each  of  these  helped  to  loosen  the 
grip  with  which  the  clerical  and  political  vam- 
pirism of  the  old  Metternich  regime  tried  to 
throttle  the  religious  and  moral  growth  of 
Austria  and  its  dependent  nationalities. 

Jokai  personifies  some  of  the  evil  forces  of 
this  regime  in  three  persons:  (i)  Prince  Cag- 
liari,  an  Austro-Italian  nobleman  of  ignoble 
character.  (2)  The  Marchioness  Caldariva,  his 
mistress,  —  formerly  a  siren  of  the  Roman 
Circus,  there  known  as  the  fair  Cyrene, — 
who  had  married  a  rich  Roman  noble,  and,  by 
his  conveniently  early  death,  inherited  his 
money.  (3)  Benjamin  Vaydar,  a  scoundrel, 
educated  among  the  Unitarians  of  Toroczko 
in  Transylvania,  who  forsakes  his  prospective 
bride  on  the  eve  of  their  marriage,  and 
becomes  a  Roman  Catholic  for  revenue  only, 
the  secretary  of  the  prince,  and  the  lover  of 
the  prince's  mistress. 

To  supply  Prince  Cagliari  with  the  money 


T^he  Vampire  City  of  Austria         2^ 

needed  for  his  dissolute  life,  his  mistress  looks 
out  for  a  rich  heiress  whom  he  may  marry. 
She  finds  one  in  the  Hungarian  Countess  von 
Zboroy,  an  innocent  girl  of  nineteen,  just  out 
of  the  convent,  and  without  any  knowledge 
of  the  world.  A  member  of  her  family,  in  a 
former  generation,  was  a  bishop  in  the  Roman 
branch  of  the  Catholic  Church.  If  a  man  in 
such  a  position  honestly  tries  to  follow  the 
example  of  his  divine  Master,  he  runs  a  great 
risk  of  experiencing  a  modern  rendering  of 
those  words  once  spoken  in  Jerusalem,  "  Not 
this  man,  but  Barabbas "  ;  but  if  he  is  un- 
christian enough  to  engage  in  the  blasphemous 
trade  of  selling  sacraments,  he  may  live  in 
pleasure  and  die  a  millionaire.  So  this  bishop, 
of  the  Zboroy  family,  had  left  so  large  a 
fortune  that  the  Countess  Blanca's  share  in 
the  heritage  was  a  great  attraction  for  the 
libertine  and  spendthrift  disciple  of  Prince 
Mettemich.     {Note  I.) 

Her  relatives  give  the  innocent  and  inex- 
perienced girl,  fresh  from  the  convent,  as  a 


26         The  Vampire  City  of  Austria 

virgin  tribute  to  the  monster,  just  as  Emperor 
Franz  of  Austria  had  given  up  his  daughter, 
Marie  Louise,  to  Napoleon  Buonaparte.  But 
the  poor  young  victim  shrinks  from  every 
touch  of  the  monster,  and  before  long,  since 
Austrian  law  permits  no  dissolution  of  the 
marriage  unless  one  of  the  parties  becomes  a 
Protestant,  the  princess,  by  the  advice  of  her 
Calvinist  lawyer,  resolves  to  go  to  Rome  and 
appeal  to  the  Pope  for  a  declaration  that  the 
marriage  was  invalid. 

If  the  profligate  sister  of  King  Henry  the 
Eighth  of  England,  Queen  Margaret  of  Scot- 
land, had  been  able  to  obtain  a  divorce  from 
her  second  husband,  the  Earl  of  Angus,  and 
to  marry  her  paramour.  Lord  Methuen,  on  the 
false  assertion  that  her  first  husband,  King 
James,  was  alive  at  the  time  of  her  marriage 
with  Angus,  how  much  more  must  Blanca,  the 
inexperienced  young  girl,  hope  to  obtain  from 
Pius  the  Ninth  a  declaration  that  her  union 
with  an  old  libertine  was  contrary  to  nature 
and  to  God's  law,  and  therefore  invalid !     She 


The  Vampire  City  of  Austria         2y 

is  innocent  enough  to  rely  on  the  justice  of 
her  cause,  and  even  her  Calvinist  lawyer 
ignores  the  true  motives  which  have  influenced 
Papal  decisions  in  such  cases.     {Note  2.) 

At  the  opening  of  Jokai's  romance,  in  the 
Spring  of  the  Revolution-year  1848,  we  find 
the  Countess  Blanca  von  Zboroy,  now  Princess 
Cagliari,  at  a  railway-station  in  Northern  Italy, 
accompanied  by  her  lawyer,  Gabriel  Zimandy, 
and  the  widow  Madame  Marie  Dormandy,  on 
the  way  to  Rome  to  seek  an  audience  from 
Pio  Nono. 

The  first  incident  of  the  story  betrays  the 
inefficiency  of  the  lawyer.  He  has  bought 
first-class  tickets  for  the  party,  but  has  for- 
gotten to  pay  the  blackmail  which  is  expected 
by  every  railroad-official ;  and,  in  spite  of  his 
protests,  he  is  pushed,  with  the  tenderly- 
nurtured  women,  into  a  carriage  of  the  lowest 
class,  overcrowded  with  foul-smelling  and  foul- 
talking  Italians.  His  appeals  in  Italian  and 
German  to  the  station-master  are  useless, 
because  unaccompanied  by  a  bribe,  and  he 


28         I'he  Vampire  City  of  Austria 

begins  to  swear  in  Hungarian.  This  attracts 
the  attention  of  another  Hungarian,  who, 
knowing  better  the  customs  of  the  people,  has 
secured  for  himself  the  exclusive  use  of  a 
first-class  compartment,  and  comes  as  a  friend 
in  need  to  his  less  diplomatic  countryman. 

The  party  travel  comfortably  together  for 
some  miles,  until  the  new  acquaintance,  think- 
ing that  the  ladies,  in  the  inconvenient  Italian 
carriages  of  1848,  may  desire  to  be  left  to 
themselves,  politely  excuses  himself  on  the 
plea  of  smoking  a  cigar.  This  gives  their  less 
thoughtful  lawyer,  Zimandy,  the  opportunity 
of  telling  the  ladies  about  the  man  who  has  so 
opportunely  rescued  them  from  the  first  un- 
pleasant incident  of  their  Italian  travel. 


II 

The  Friend  in  Need 

DO  you  know  this  gentleman  ? "  asks  the 
widow. 

"Yes." 

"  What  is  he  1  a  Jew,  or  an  Atheist  ? " 

"  Neither.  He  is  a  Unitarian  from  Tran- 
sylvania, the  youngest  of  a  large  family,  all 
of  whom  are  sons  excepting  his  twin-sister 
Anna."     {Note  J.) 

From  the  lawyer's  story,  as  he  goes  on, 
it  appears  that  their  new  friend,  by  name 
Manasseh  Adoryan,  is  a  young  man  of  re- 
markable talent,  and  had  gained  a  very  high 
diplomatic  position  when  only  twenty-two  years 
old.  Under  the  influence,  however,  of  the 
French    Revolution    (February,    1848),    the 


JO  T'he  Friend  in  Need 

Transylvanians  had  decided  on  union  with 
Hungary,  and  so  Manasseh  Adoryan's  occupa- 
tion is  gone.  If  he  pleased,  he  might  follow 
the  example  of  his  colleagues,  —  go  to  Vienna, 
and  there  intrigue  in  the  dark  until  the  old 
party  is  in  power  again ;  but  for  this  he  is  too 
honorable,  and  so  he  is  going  into  exile,  to  earn 
a  living  by  the  painting  which  has  hitherto 
been  the  amusement  of  his  leisure. 

At  the  next  station,  Zimandy  joins  Adoryan 
to  enjoy  a  pipe,  and  tells  him  of  the  Princess 
Blanca's  business  in  Rome.  He  says  that 
while  Prince  Cagliari  is  sensual,  arrogant  and 
revengeful,  Benjamin  Vaydar,  his  factotum,  is 
clever,  sly  and  diplomatic,  and  is  now  on  his 
way  to  Rome,  perhaps  in  this  very  train,  to 
secure  such  a  nullification  of  the  marriage 
that  all  the  reproach  may  be  cast  on  the  inno- 
cent Princess  Blanca,  and  so,  while  she  may 
not  marry  again,  the  prince  may  assume  her 
fortune  and  marry  his  mistress.  All  the  law- 
yer's hopes  of  a  more  just  solution  of  the 
trouble  are  based  upon  the  fact  that,  as  a 


'^he  Friend  in  Need  j/ 

result  of  the  Revolution,  the  Pope  is  now 
surrounded  by  liberal  advisers. 

"  But  why  go  to  all  that  trouble  ? "  says 
Manasseh  to  the  Calvinist  lawyer.  "  If  your 
princess  becomes  Protestant,  she  can  get  her 
divorce  easily  enough."     {Note  4.) 

"  Servus  humillimiis  !  But  how  about  the 
bishop's  legacy  ? " 

"I  tell  you,  if  your  princess  has  a  heart, 
and  finds  a  man  who  is  worth  thirty  pieces  of 
silver,  she  will  not  care  about  the  bishop's 
million.  I  believe  thirty  pieces  is  the  price 
for  which  our  Lord  Jesus  was  sold." 

"  Speak  not  of  Him  !  "  says  the  Calvinist. 
"He  is  the  God  whom  I  worship." 

**And  the  man  whom  I  imitate^'  responds 
the  Unitarian. 

They  reach  a  railway-junction,  and  the  law- 
yer, instead  of  going  back  to  the  ladies  to  sec 
that  they  are  protected  from  unpleasant  com- 
pany who  may  arrive  by  the  connecting  train, 
goes  into  the  restaurant  to  satisfy  his  appetite, 


J2  The  Friend  in  Need 

Benjamin  Vaydar,  arriving  by  the  other  train, 
enters  the  compartment  in  which  the  Princess 
Blanca  and  her  companion  are  sitting.  Know- 
ing his  intentions,  they  beg  him  to  leave  them 
in  peace,  and  on  his  teUing  the  princess  that 
she  will  have  to  choose  between  him  for  a 
husband  and  a  life  of  misery,  she  replies,  — 

"God  will  protect  me." 

^^Ah,  princess,'"  responds  Vaydar,  "  we  are 
going  to  Rome,  where  there  is  many  a  church, 
but  no  God.'"     {Note 5.) 

Zimandy  returns  from  his  meal,  to  find 
Vaydar  occupying  his  seat ;  but  the  lawyer  is 
too  timid  to  protect  the  ladies  against  the 
intruder. 

Suddenly  the  princess  remarks  that  the 
sneer  on  the  dandy's  face  is  replaced  by  a  look 
of  terror.  Manasseh  Adoryan  stands  at  the 
door. 

"  Sir,  that  place  is  reserved,"  he  says  to 
Vaydar,  —  and  the  intruder,  like  a  beaten  cur, 
slinks  out  of  the  carriage. 

For  the  second  time,  the  stranger  has  saved 


'The  Friend  in  Need  33 

Blanca  from  molestation,  and  naturally  she 
begins  to  wonder  what  is  the  secret  of  the 
power,  possessed  by  this  heretic,  against 
whom  she  is  warned  by  her  Church,  over 
the  Romanist  for  revenue  only,  who  has  told 
her  that  in  Rome  there  is  many  a  church,  but 
no  God. 

She  falls  asleep,  and  when  the  shrill  whistle 
of  the  locomotive  wakes  her,  reminding  the 
passengers  that  they  are  approaching  Bologna, 
Manasseh  informs  the  ladies  that  he  must  take 
leave  of  them,  since  their  route  goes  by  way 
of  Imola  and  Ancona,  while  he  must  leave  the 
railroad  and  go  to  Rome  by  mountain  roads, 
by  way  of  Pistoja  and  Florence,  by  which 
route  he  will  arrive  a  day  earlier  than  the 
passengers  by  way  of  Ancona. 

The  fear  of  being  molested  by  Vaydar, 
when  her  new  acquaintance  is  no  longer  near 
to  protect  her,  and  the  prospect  of  reaching 
Rome  a  day  earlier,  leads  the  princess  to  sug- 
gest to  her  companions  that  they  too  should 
go  the  same  way  as  Manasseh.     But  she  is  at 


34  '^he  Friend  in  Need 

once  met  by  Madame  Dormandy's  fear  of  the 
brigands  in  the  Apennines. 

"  You  are  far  more  likely  to  meet  brigands 
on  the  way  between  Ancona  and  Rome,"  replies 
Manasseh.  "  I  have  traveled  through  the  Apen- 
nines in  my  youth,  and  was  never  molested. 
We  artists  have  nothing  to  fear  from  them. 
This  train  will  have  to  stop  over-night  in 
Faenza,  and  will  again  be  delayed  in  Rimini, 
because  the  line  is  overcrowded  with  troops 
coming  northwards.  This  is  why  we  gain  a 
day  by  going  the  other  way." 

All  four  leave  the  train  at  Bologna,  and 
Manasseh,  after  keeping  guard  until  the  train 
has  carried  Vaydar  out  of  sight,  engages  a 
vetturino  to  take  them  on  to  Viterbo. 

Anxious  to  know  the  secret  of  Manasseh's 
power  over  her  persecutor,  Blanca  questions 
him,  and  gets  the  answer,  "  I  fear  I  might  be 
tempted  to  kill  him." 

She  learns  from  him  that  Vaydar  was  an 
orphan  who  was  educated  by  Manasseh's 
parents,  and  was  betrothed  to  his  twin-sister 


The  Friend  in  Need  35 

Anna ;  that  when  all  was  ready  for  the  wed- 
ding, he  vanished  and  wrote  to  cancel  his 
engagement;  and  Blanca  finds  that  this 
occurred  very  soon  after  she  had  first  met 
Vaydar  as  the  prince's  secretary. 

**  But  why  does  he  fear  you  ?  " 

"Because  I  hold  evidence  of  a  crime  for 
which  he  would  be  punished." 

"  Why  not  use  it  to  punish  his  treatment 
of  your  sister  ?  " 

"  My  religion  forbids  revenge." 

"  Has  your  sister  found  another  lover  ?  " 

"  My  people  love  but  once  !  " 

A  paraphrase  of  the  last  sentence  is  the 
title  adopted  by  the  German  translator  of 
Jokai's  romance,  to  whom  the  words  of  the 
Hungarian  title,  "There  is  One  God,"  seem 
too  theological. 

As  the  vetturino  drives  the  party  through 
the  picturesque  scenery  south  of  Bologna, 
Blanca  asks  Adoryan  about  his  distant  home 


j6  The  Friend  in  Need 

in  the  Transylvanian  Carpathians.  It  is  a 
beautifully  idyllic  story  that  he  tells  her,  for 
these  people,  invited  by  a  Hungarian  king 
over  five  centuries  ago  to  settle  in  the  country 
and  teach  the  Szeklers  how  to  work  the  iron- 
mines,  have  been  the  subject  of  many  a  poetic 
myth,  and  are  even  connected  in  popular  fancy 
with  that  German  legend  of  the  Middle  Ages 
which  has  been  versified  by  Robert  Browning 
in  his  "  Pied  Piper  of  Hamehn." 

Manasseh's  story  is  too  long  for  quota- 
tion here,  and  to  condense  it  would  do  it 
injustice.     {Note  6.) 

The  lawyer  Zimandy,  tortured  by  fears  of 
the  brigands,  suggests  that  they  lodge  over- 
night at  a  roadside  inn.  They  find  one,  fre- 
quented only  by  the  laborers  of  a  neighboring 
quarry.  When  some  of  these  people  enter, 
Zimandy  barricades  himself  and  the  ladies  in 
the  only  spare  room,  thinking  they  are  brigands, 
while  Manasseh  fraternizes  with  them,  and 
presently  accompanies  them  to  a  farm  at  some 
distance,    returning   with    provisions   for   his 


The  Friend  in  Need  j/ 

party,  since  the  meager  larder  of  the  inn- 
keeper can  supply  the  hungry  Hungarians 
with  nothing  but  artichokes  and  bread. 

While  the  princess  is  going  with  the  con- 
fidence of  an  innocent  child  into  the  greatest 
dangers,  Manasseh,  whose  diplomatic  experi- 
ence has  made  him  older  than  his  years,  and 
who  knows  all  the  family  secrets  of  the  lib- 
ertine Prince  Cagliari,  as  well  as  his  political 
intrigues,  is  careful,  while  hiding  all  his  anx- 
ieties from  the  princess,  to  lead  her  by  the 
safest  way  to  Rome,  and  to  secure  for  her  the 
means  of  protecting  herself  against  the  prince's 
accomplices. 

No  brigands  are  to  be  feared  on  the  route 
by  which  he  leads  them  on  the  morrow ;  they 
meet  only  small  troops  of  revolutionary  vol- 
unteers on  their  way  to  join  the  Roman  army, 
and  these  men  are  his  friends. 

Reaching  Rome  on  the  evening  of  the  sec- 
ond day,  he  leaves  the  party  at  the  Porta  del 
Popolo,  while  they  drive  on  to  their  hotel. 
The  hotel-keeper,  who  had  been  notified  be- 


j8  The  Friend  in  Need 

forehand  of  their  proposed  arrival  by  way  of 
Ancona,  welcomes  them  with  astonishment, 
for  he  has  just  learned  that  another  guest  from 
Hungary,  whom  he  expected  by  the  same  route, 
has  been  seized  by  the  brigands  near  Monte 
Rosso,  and  carried  off  to  the  mountains  to  be 
held  there  until  his  ransom  can  be  procured 
from  Vienna.  The  captive  is  Benjamin  Vay- 
dar,  the  man  who,  in  threatening  the  princess, 
had  told  her  that  there  are  many  churches  in 
Rome,  but  no  God ;  while  the  man  who  be- 
lieves in  One  God  has  saved  Blanca  not  only 
from  Vaydar  but  also  from  the  brigands,  who 
would  have  seized  her  also  had  she  traveled 
by  Ancona. 

And  the  impressionable  young  girl  believes 
that  the  Unitarian's  God  will  save  her  again,  — 
in  the  favorable  accomplishment  of  her  mission 
to  Rome,  —  as  he  has  saved  her  before. 


Ill 

Passion  Week  in  Rome 

A  GOOD  lawyer  would  use  the  opportunity 
afforded  by  the  seizure  of  his  client's 
enemy  to  push  forward  her  suit  with  the 
Papal  authorities  with  all  possible  dispatch. 
Not  so  with  Gabriel  Zimandy.  He  procras- 
tinates. As  for  the  pious  young  princess, 
just  out  of  the  convent, — that  she  hopes  to 
find  strength  and  comfort  in  the  magnificently 
staged  ceremonies  of  Passion  Week  in  the 
metropolis  of  Roman  Catholicism  is  quite 
natural. 

Disappointed  in  her  efforts  to  obtain  tickets 
for  the  ceremonies  through  the  hotel-keeper, 
she  sends  out  her  lawyer  to  obtain  them.  On 
the  street  he  meets  Manasseh  Adoryan,  who 
asks  him, — 


40  Passion  Week  in  Rome 

"How  are  you  getting  on  with  your  law- 
suit ? " 

The  lawyer  answers,  "  Not  in  the  least.  I 
cannot  even  get  tickets  for  the  Passion  Week 
ceremonies." 

"  I  will  manage  that  for  you,"  says  the 
Unitarian. 

"  What !  You,  an  Arian,  and  a  fallen 
diplomat  from  Austria,  whose  ambassador  has 
been  driven  from  Rome,  obtain  what  has  been 
refused  even  to  Spanish  princes  .'' " 

"You  will  see,"  says  Adoryan,  and  enters 
the  house  of  Pellegrino  Rossi,  the  son-in-law 
of  Guizot,  and  (until  the  flight  of  Louis 
Philippe)  the  representative  of  that  king  at 
the  Papal  Court.  Coming  out,  he  hands  the 
tickets  to  Zimandy,  with  the  words,  "  Do  not 
think,  friend  Zimandy,  that  I  am  a  Cagliostro. 
I  am  well  acquainted  with  Signor  Rossi  and 
his  family,  and,  on  my  asking  him  for  tickets 
for  two  Hungarian  ladies  and  their  lawyer,  he 
gave  me  these." 

The  reader  of   the  P2nglish  translation  of 


Passion  Week  in  Rome  41 

"  There  is  no  Devil,"  which  the  editor  of  the 
same  thought  especially  suitable  for  American 
readers  (see  Introduction  to  this  book),  will 
readily  understand  that  Blanca's  experiences  of 
Austro-Hungarian  manhood  had  given  her  so 
low  an  opinion  of  the  male  sex  that  the  Unitarian 
heretic  would  seem  to  her  like  an  angel  from 
a  better  world,  and  that  in  their  three  days' 
intercourse  she  was  beginning  to  love  him. 

She  hopes,  now,  that  the  sacraments  of  the 
Passion  Week  will  save  her  from  the  dangers 
of  this  love.  But  Zimandy  tells  her  that, 
feeling  incompetent  to  be  the  cicerone  of  the 
ladies  in  Rome,  he  fears  the  tickets  will  be 
useless  unless  Manasseh  accompanies  them 
to  ceremonies  which  he,  the  Unitarian,  must 
regard  as  little  better  than  a  sort  of  sacramental 
hypnotism.  Thus  she  still  is  likely  to  continue 
meeting  him. 

Meanwhile,  Manasseh  has  been  attending  to 
business  in  the  ladies'  interest.  He  calls  at 
the  hotel  to  inform  them  that  the  trunks  with 
their  indispensable  millinery  have  arrived  by 


/f2  Passion  Week  in  Rome 

way  of  Ancona,  and  are  at  the  custom-house. 
He  tells  them  that  the  only  man  captured  was 
Vaydar,  who  was  traveling  by  extra-post,  and 
that  the  next  post  had  brought  a  letter  from 
the  brigands  addressed  to  Prince  Cagliari  at 
Vienna.  He  advises  them,  therefore,  to  use 
the  opportunity  of  the  interval  to  secure  a 
favorable  verdict  from  the  Pope,  before  the 
arrival  of  the  ransom  permits  Blanca's  enemies 
to  have  access  to  the  Papal  Court. 

Manasseh  accepts  Zimandy's  invitation  to 
guide  the  ladies  through  Rome,  to  attend  upon 
the  week's  ceremonies.  He  accompanies  them 
to  all  places  to  which  pious  Catholic  pilgrims 
go.  Coming  from  a  land  where  the  myths  of 
the  Middle  Ages  are  still  believed,  he  can 
recount  the  poetic  myths  which  have  grown 
up  in  the  popular  imagination  in  regard  to  all 
the  facts  of  the  gospel  history.  He  takes 
them  to  hear  the  Tenebrae  at  the  Sistine 
Chapel ;  and  on  this  occasion  Manasseh  ob- 
serves that  the  princess's  lawyer,  Zimandy,  is 
in  love  with  her  companion,  the  widow  Dor- 


Passion  Week  in  Rome  4J 

mandy,  and  that  this  may  lead  to  the  Calvin- 
ist's  becoming  a  Romanist,  marrying  the 
widow,  and  leaving  the  poor  princess  friend- 
less in  Rome,  among  her  enemies. 

The  next  day  they  see  the  procession  in 
the  Hall  of  Kings,  while  two  choirs,  one  in 
the  Sistine,  the  other  in  the  Pauline  Chapel, 
are  singing  antiphonies.  The  Pope  washes 
the  feet  of  the  pilgrims,  who  then  march  to 
the  "  Coena,"  or  Supper,  in  the  Hall  of  Con- 
stantine. 

There  is  one  incident  in  the  trial  of  Jesus 
which  has  probably  been  more  frequently 
repeated  than  any  other  among  people  who 
call  themselves  Christian.  It  is  that  to  which 
reference  has  already  once  been  made :  "  But 
the  chief  priests  and  elders  persuaded  the 
multitude  that  they  should  ask  Barabbas,  and 
destroy  Jesus."  (Matt.  27,  20.) 

At  this  point  in  his  romance,  Jokai  describes 
the  theatrical  event  which  took  place  in  Rome 
at  this  time,  in  which,  in  imitation  of  the 
gospel  occurrence  just  cited,  one  of  the  chief- 


44  Passion  Week  in  Rome 

priests  and  elders  of  the  Roman  Church 
pardons  an  assassin,  who,  further  on  in  the 
romance,  as  will  be  seen,  murders  the  peace- 
maker Rossi,  the  best  friend  of  the  Pope  and 
the  people.  The  sight  of  the  pardoned  crim- 
inal makes  an  impression  on  the  princess 
which  she  remembers  with  horror  for  many 
days  afterwards. 

On  Saturday  they  go  to  the  Sistine  Chapel 
again,  to  hear  Palestrina's  Mass  of  Pope  Mar- 
cellus,  and  Zimandy  learns  that  His  Holiness, 
Pope  Pius  the  Ninth,  will  accord  his  client  a 
private  audience  in  the  Vatican  on  Easter 
Monday. 

On  Easter  Sunday  the  Princess  Blanca 
accompanies  Countess  Rossi  and  her  daughter 
to  Saint  Peter's,  to  see  the  Benediction,  while 
Manasseh  goes  on  foot,  with  Gabriel  Zimandy, 
among  the  crowd,  to  see  what  had  never  hap- 
pened in  Rome  before  that  year  1848,  and 
will  probably  never  happen  again, — the  head 
of  the  Romish  Church  asking  God's  blessing 
on  the  troops  of  Italy.    They  were  then  about 


Passion  Week  in  Rome  4^ 

to  march  northwards  to  defend  their  country 
against  the  Austrian  vampires  who  so  long  had 
been  sucking  at  Italy's  life-blood.    {Note  /.) 

Both  Blanca  and  Zimandy  return  to  the 
hotel  full  of  enthusiasm  in  expectation  of  the 
Pope's  favor  in  their  suit,  for  Blanca  has  given 
her  jewelry  for  the  sacred  cause,  and  one  of 
the  palm-leaves  blessed  by  the  Pope  has  fallen 
into  her  hands,  while  the  people  call  her  "  la 
Beata  "  ["the  blessed  one  "].  That  the  Pope 
has  blessed  the  Roman  legions,  Zimandy  holds 
to  be  an  auspicious  sign,  and  thinks  the  cause 
of  his  client  already  won.  The  Unitarian, 
however,  who,  with  all  his  appreciation  for 
religious  poetry,  even  in  its  most  superstitious 
manifestations,  keeps  a  cool  head  for  the  facts 
of  life,  says  to  the  lawyer,  — "  I  have  not  the 
slightest  doubt  that  Pio  Nono  is  a  gentle, 
noble-hearted,  upright  and  enlightened  man, 
and  a  gracious  prince ;  but  I  believe  also  that 
the  Austrians  will  beat  the  pious  Christian 
Durando  in  the  very  first  engagement,  without 
any  regard  for  the  Papal  blessing.     {Note  8.) 


^6  Passion  Week  in  Rome 

While  dining  at  the  table-d'h6te,  the  lawyer 
explains  to  the  inquisitive  widow  Dormandy 
the  nature  of  the  divorce-suit : 

"  A  Romanist  marriage,  being  a  sacrament, 
cannot  be  dissolved  so  long  as  either  party 
lives ;  only  a  separation  from  bed  and  board 
is  allowable,  and  neither  party  can  marry 
again.  But  in  the  present  suit  both  parties 
rely  on  the  provisions  of  the  Thirteenth  Para- 
graph of  the  Secret  Instructions,  which 
regards  the  sacrament  as  invalid  if  one  party 
is  a  sleep-walker,  insane,  or  epileptic.  In  such 
case  the  defective  party  is  prohibited  from 
marrying  again,  while  the  other  may  do  so." 

On  Easter  Monday  the  princess  and  her 
lawyer  go  to  the  Vatican  for  their  private 
audience.  Since  eight  hundred  others  are 
there  on  the  same  errand  it  is  evident  that  not 
much  can  be  said  to  the  Pope,  or  by  him,  but 
after  presenting  her  petition,  Blanca  is  still 
full  of  hope  that  the  words  which  she  has 
heard  from  the  smiling  lips  of  Pio  Nono,  "  Tu 
es petra^'  predict  a  happy  result  for  her. 


IV 

Diplomacy 

THE  Austrian  ambassador  having  fled  from 
Rome,  the  Princess  Blanca  is  obliged  to 
^  have  recourse  to  the  Bavarian  representative 
in  all  matters  concerning  her  Hungarian  rela- 
tions, and  becomes  acquainted  with  his  wife, 
the  Countess  Spaur.  This  lady,  like  the 
Marchioness  Caldariva,  had  been  a  Roman 
actress  in  her  youth,  and  had  married  a 
wealthy  Englishman,  who  died  soon  after 
the  wedding,  leaving  her  his  money.  She 
thereupon  married  Count  Spaur.  So  much 
is  historical. 

Returning  to  her  hotel  from  a  visit  to  this 
lady,  Blanca  finds  her  lawyer  in  great  anxiety. 
He  has  just  received  a  letter  from  the  Uni- 


^8  Diplomacy 

tarian,  telling  him  that  Durando  has  already 
been  forbidden  by  the  Pope  to  cross  the  Po. 
If  he  disobeys  the  Pope's  orders,  and  is  beaten 
by  the  Austrians,  there  will  be  no  hope  for 
the  princess. 

One  day,  passing  the  Palazzo  Cagliari  at 
Rome,  the  princess  remarks  that  the  shutters 
are  opened  and  the  rooms  brilliantly  lighted  — 
a  proof  that  her  enemies  have  arrived  in  the 
city. 

Her  lawyer  also,  having  still  delayed  to 
push  her  suit,  now  finds  a  new  set  of  people 
in  office  in  the  Vatican,  and  begins  to 
lose  all  trace  of  the  progress  of  his  client's 
case. 

Prince  Cagliari  calls  on  the  princess  at  her 
hotel,  tells  her  that  he  proposes  so  to  arrange 
their  separation  that,  instead  of  being  his  wife, 
she  will  be  his  daughter,  and  he  will  send  his 
secretary  Vaydar  to  her  to  arrange  the  for- 
malities ! 

After  the  prince's  departure,  Blanca  receives 
an  anonymous  letter : 


Diplomacy  4g 

"  Princess,  be  careful.  Prince  Cagliari  has 
a  devilish  project  in  view.  He  wants  a  divorce 
from  you,  on  condition  that  you  marry  his 
secretary  Vaydar.  But  Vaydar  is  capable  of 
selling  his  wife  !  Now  you  are  the  prince's 
wife,  and  Caldariva  is  his  mistress.  The  prince 
wants  to  make  Caldariva  his  wife,  and  you  his 
mistress.  Be  on  your  guard.  Rome  is  the 
cradle  of  the  Borgias," 

Alarmed  by  this  letter,  Blanca  feels  the 
need  of  a  good  adviser.  To  whom  can  she 
turn }  Her  lawyer  has  failed  her,  and  the 
only  person  who  has  really  helped  her  is  the 
heretic,  whose  incomprehensible  power  over 
Vaydar  has  already  delivered  her  from  his 
persecutions.  But  where  can  she  find  him  } 
He  has  not  given  her  his  address. 

Her  companion,  the  widow  Dormandy,  has 
learned  from  a  priest  that  a  party  of  his  Hun- 
garian countrymen  are  to  visit  the  Coliseum. 
The  princess  accompanies  them.  It  happens 
that,  seeing  an  artist  at  work  on  the  top 
gallery,  she  goes  up  to  him,  and  finds  him  to 
be  Adoryan,  whom  she  seeks.      She  shows 


50  Diplomacy 

him  the  anonymous  letter.  He  reads  and 
returns  it,  saying,  "  It  is  just  like  them  !  "  He 
then  continues: 

"  Princess,  I  cannot  intervene  between  you 
and  your  enemies,  for  my  shadow  must  not 
fall  upon  you.  But  I  can  give  you  a  weapon 
to  use  in  your  own  defense ;  only,  if  you  use 
it,  you  may  be  sure  that  the  Papal  verdict  will 
be  unfavorable  to  you." 

"  I  shall  be  satisfied." 

"  If  Vaydar  offers  you  his  hand,  you  need 
only  reply,  '  There  is  a  canonical  obstacle  to 
our  marriage,  —  the  Fourteenth  Paragraph  of 
the  Secret  Instructions!  " 

"  What  is  the  Fourteenth  Paragraph  ?  " 

"  He  will  know,  and  if  you  say  these  words 
to  him  he  will  never  enter  your  presence 
again." 

Blanca  rejoins  her  party,  and,  returning  to 
her  hotel,  finds  that  Vaydar  has  already  called, 
and  that  he  will  call  again.  On  his  arrival, 
she  shows  him  the  anonymous  letter.  He 
turns  pale  with  anger,  and  says,  — 


Diplomacy  5/ 

"I  know  who  wrote  that!  It  was  the 
Marchioness  Caldariva." 

"She  here?" 

"  Of  course  !  She  accompanies  the  prince 
everywhere." 

"  But  what  interest  can  she  have  in  prevent- 
ing a  divorce  which  would  enable  her  to  marry 
the  prince  ? " 

"  She  is  jealous," 

After  further  words,  which  show  Blanca 
that  Vaydar,  while  suing  for  her  hand,  simply 
pretends  to  be  the  victim  of  jealousy  on  the 
part  of  his  employer's  mistress,  she  resolves 
to  try  the  weapon  which  Adoryan  has  put 
into  her  hands. 

"  I  cannot  promise  to  marry  you,  for  a 
clause  in  the  Roman  Ecclesiastical  Law 
forbids  it." 

"  So  you  have  studied  ecclesiastical  law  "> 
You  are  evidently  thinking  of  the  Tenth  Para- 
graph, which  is  inapplicable  in  this  case." 

"No,  sir;  I  meant  the  Fourteenth  Para- 
graph." 


^2  Diplomacy 

Blanca  is  shocked  by  the  sudden  change  in 
Vaydar's  features. 

"  I  know  who  told  you  that !  "  he  cries.  "  I 
will  revenge  myself  on  both  of  you  !  "  And 
he  leaves  the  room. 

Her  lawyer  comes,  one  day,  to  tell  her  that, 
as  she  has  expressed  the  wish  to  change  her 
lodging,  she  can  have  apartments  under  the 
same  roof  as  her  friends,  the  Rossi  family. 
He  comes  again,  some  days  later,  to  tell  her 
that,  as  a  last  sacrifice  in  her  service,  he  will 
change  his  religion,  and  be  received  into  the 
Roman  Church,  —  intimating  that  by  this 
means  he  can  more  successfully  further  her 
cause,  and  concealing  his  real  motive,  his  desire 
to  marry  the  widow  Dormandy.  Accordingly, 
he  is  baptized. 

A  week  later,  the  Papal  judgment  in  the 
princess's  suit  is  published.  The  princess 
obtains  a  legal  separation  from  Prince  Cagliari, 
but  may  never  marry  again,  while  the  prince 
is  forbidden  to  marry  during  the  princess's 
life.      By  succeeding  in  bringing  about  this 


Diplomacy  5J 

result,  Vaydar  has  revenged  himself  on  the 
Princess  Blanca  for  refusing  his  suit,  on 
Adoryan  for  protecting  the  princess,  and  on 
the  Marchioness  Caldariva  for  sending  the 
anonymous  letter.  But  he  also  places  the 
princess's  life  in  danger,  for  while  she  lives 
it  will  be  impossible  for  Prince  Cagliari  to 
marry  the  Marchioness  Caldariva,  and  by  the 
decree  the  Pope  has  condemned  her  to  live  in 
a  wing  of  the  Cagliari  Palace,  which,  imknown 
to  the  princess,  is  connected  by  secret  passages 
with  rooms  occupied  by  the  very  people  who 
have  the  strongest  interest  in  Blanca's  death. 
This  is  among  a  population  more  notorious 
for  the  frequency  and  secrecy  of  its  assassina- 
tions than  any  other  people  in  Christendom. 

The  princess,  still  a  girl  of  less  than  twenty 
years,  accepts  the  decision  of  the  infallible 
Pope  as  the  will  of  God.  She  is  not  to  see 
again  the  only  man  who  has  ever  roused  her 
love  or  proved  himself  worthy  of  it !  Her 
only  social  relations  must  be  with  the  Rossi 
family,  and  with  their  adversary,  ,  a  fit 


5^  Diplomacy 

representative  of  that  Bavarian  government 
whose  relations  with  Lola  Montez  had  made 
it  the  laughing-stock  of  all  Europe. 

One  day,  on  her  way  to  visit  the  Countess 

,   her  carriage,  which  bore  the  Cagliari 

coat-of-arms,  is  suddenly  stopped  by  a  crowd 
in  the  Campo  Vaccino.  A  savage  man,  holding 
a  knife  between  his  teeth,  opens  the  carriage- 
door,  but,  seeing  only  Blanca,  replaces  the 
knife  in  his  belt,  and  calls  out  to  the  crowd, 
^^ Lasciate !  la  Condmtnata!"  ["Leave  her  in 
peace,  the  condemned  one !  " —  the  name  the 
Italians  gave  Blanca  after  her  separation  from 
the  prince,  while  they  had  before  called  her 
"the  blessed  one."] 

This  adventure,  which  causes  her  so  much 
terror  that  she  dare  not  leave  the  palace  again, 
is  a  source  of  amusement  to  the  Countess 

y  who  tells  her  that  the  assassin's  knife 

was  intended  for  Prince  Cagliari  and  his  sec- 
retary; but  they,  warned  in  time,  had  both 
fled  from  the  rage  of  the  crowd  to  Civita 
Vecchia. 


V 

The  Temptress 

ONE  November  night,  as  the  princess  lies 
in  her  bedroom,  she  hears  strains  of 
song,  music  and  laughter  proceeding  from  a 
painting  of  Sappho  which  adorns  the  chim- 
ney-piece of  her  room.  Presently,  the  back 
of  the  fire-place  rises,  disclosing  a  woman 
clothed  only  with  a  peplum  and  sandals,  reveal- 
ing rather  than  hiding  a  perfect  form,  remind- 
ing one  of  an  antique  statue.  This  woman 
extinguishes  the  wood  burning  on  the  hearth, 
and,  entering  Blanca's  chamber,  says,  "  I  am 
the  Marchioness  Caldariva ! " 

She  explains  to  the  frightened  princess  that 
this  secret  entrance  through  the  fire-place  was 
built  by  a  jealous  husband,  an  ancestor  of 


^6  'T'he  'Temptress 

Prince  Cagliari,  who  used  it  as  a  means  of 
spying  on  his  wife,  himself  unseen.  The 
painting  of  Sappho  hid  an  apparatus  hke 
the  ear  of  Dionysius,  by  which  every  sound 
coming  from  the  chamber  occupied  by 
Blanca  could  be  heard  in  the  rest  of  the 
palace.  Thus  Caldariva  could  hear  all  that 
the  princess  might  say,  while,  being  on  her 
guard,  she  allowed  only  those  sounds  that 
suited  her  own  purpose  to  reach  the  ear  of 
the  princess. 

This  woman,  skilled  in  all  the  arts  by  which 
libertines  may  be  ruled,  tries  to  win  the  con- 
fidence of  the  innocent  girl  whom  she  wishes 
to  destroy.  She  acknowledges  the  authorship 
of  the  warning  letter,  and  so  lays  claim  to 
Blanca's  gratitude  for  having  saved  her  from 
Vaydar's  intrigues.  She  explains  to  Blanca 
the  meaning  of  the  Fourteenth  Paragraph, 
which  was  so  effective  a  weapon  against 
Vaydar,  and  says  that  Vaydar  has  asked 
her  to  use  her  fascinations  for  the  pur- 
pose of   obtaining  from   Manasseh  Adoryan 


I^he  Temptress  57 

the  proofs  which  he  possesses  of  Vaydar's 
guilt. 

Horror-struck  at  the  idea  of  the  man  whom 
she  loves  succumbing  to  the  fascinations  of 
this  courtesan,  Blanca  is  yet  glad  to  know 
that  Manasseh  is  still  in  Rome. 

Caldariva  next  suggests  the  other  alternative 
in  her  power,  so  easy  in  Papal  Rome,  —  that 
of  assassination  ;  but  says,  "  I  have  rejected 
both  these  alternatives,  because  I  know  that 
the  young  artist  loves  you,  and  that  you  love 
him.  I  do  not  like  tragedies :  I  prefer  com- 
edies. Thus,  to  amuse  myself,  I  have  driven 
my  two  fools  away  from  Rome !     I  sent  to 

Countess   a   couple    of    letters   which 

Prince  Cagliari  had  written  to  'Giacomo'  [Car- 
dinal Antonelli,  see  Note  /]  and  to  the  great 
Ciceruacchio  [the  democratic  leader].  I  sent 
one  of    the  prince's  letters  to  an  Austrian 

general.      So   the   Countess    arranged 

the  tumult  which  nearly  cost  you  your  life. 
The  intention  was  to  kill  the  prince  and 
his  spiritus  familiaris ;    but  I  warned  them 


5<5*  1'he  temptress 

betimes,  and  they  sneaked  out  of  Rome, 
while  you  and  I  remain  behind  to  laugh  at 
them." 

She  departs,  as  she  came,  through  the  fire- 
place, but  day  after  day  makes  further  secret 
visits  to  Blanca,  each  time  bringing  her  news 
which  may  give  some  idea  of  her  power  over 
Blanca's  libertine  enemies,  or  hypnotizing  her 
by  suggestions  founded  on  the  princess's  love 
for  the  Unitarian.  "  You  are  rich,  and  he  is 
a  king  in  the  realms  of  art.  You  can  buy  the 
sacraments  of  the  Church  with  your  money, 
while  he  can  win  the  applause  of  the  world 
by  his  pictures,  and  to  genius  and  wealth  all 
will  be  forgiven." 

She  cites  the  example  of  George  the  Fourth's 
wife,  but  either  Jokai  has  misread  this  history, 
or  —  which  is  more  likely  —  he  purposely  puts 
a  perversion  of  the  truth  in  the  marchioness's 
mouth. 

These  are  the  exact  words  which  Jokai 
makes  the  marchioness  use : 

"  This  [  which  I  advise  you  ]  was  once  done 


'The  Temptress  5p 

by  a  queen  who  was  persecuted  by  her  hus- 
band, the  King  of  Great  Britain.  He  sur- 
rounded the  wife,  who  traveled  in  the  wide 
world,  with  spies.  He  had  proofs.  The  wife 
could  not  excuse  herself ;  but  nevertheless  she 
was  acquitted.  Her  crowned  husband  bribed 
even  her  paramour,  who  betrayed  the  queen 
whose  favors  had  made  him  a  demi-god.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  all  this,  both  the  law  and  the 
world  acquitted  her." 

How  different  is  this  rendering  from  the 
true  story  of  George  the  Fourth's  attempt  to 
obtain  a  divorce  from  the  unfortunate  Queen 
Caroline  of  Brunswick !  He  was  married  by 
the  Roman  rites  to  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  before 
he  married  Princess  Caroline,  and,  even  though 
the  queen  had  been  guilty,  his  own  adulteries 
would  have  enabled  the  Proctor  to  intervene 
had  he  been  only  an  English  commoner  and 
not  the  king. 

The  temptress  continues :  "  Your  whole 
life  will  then  be  an  unceasing  chain  of  joy. 
You  can  make  of  it  a  continuous  Springtime, 


6o  T/ie  "Temptress 

for  you  can  migrate  with  the  Spring,  like  the 
birds." 

If  Blanca  had  yielded  to  the  temptation, 
and,  what  is  still  more  improbable,  if  the 
Unitarian  Manasseh  could  have  been  made  a 
party  to  this  plan,  they  would  have  gone  to 
their  own  destruction.  Then  the  prince  could 
have  married  the  marchioness. 

On  another  of  these  secret  visits,  Caldariva 
invites  Blanca  to  come  to  a  masked  ball,  which 
she  has  arranged  while  "her  two  fools"  are 
absent  from  Rome,  and  at  which  the  lead- 
ers of  Roman  fashion  are  expected  to  be 
present. 

Blanca  declines,  on  the  ground  that  on  the 
same  day  (November  15,  1848)  her  friend 
Rossi  will,  as  Minister-President  of  the  Roman 
Parliament,  make  his  opening  address,  and  the 
revolutionary  outbursts  in  the  daily  press  make 
her  fear  that  the  Palazzo  Cagliari,  like  the 
prince's  carriage,  may  be  attacked  by  the 
mob. 

"Oh,"  says  Caldariva,  "I  inspire  some  of 


T^he  Temptress  6l 

the  papers  myself !     In  other  words,  we  pay 
the  editors  —  and  the  mob  also  ! " 

Finally,  she  secures  a  half-promise  from 
Blanca,  by  saying  that  Manasseh  Adoryan 
will  be  among  the  guests.  The  idea  of  the 
man  whom  she  loves  degrading  himself  by 
visiting  in  the  Cagliari  Palace  is  in  the  highest 
degree  offensive  to  Blanca,  but  the  hope  of 
seeing  him  once  more  overcomes  all  other 
considerations. 


VI 

A  Roman  Assassination 

THE  fifteenth  of  November  approaches, 
and  the  princess  drives  to  the  ParUa- 
ment  House.  Among  the  crowd  she  sees 
the  assassin  who  had  personated  Barabbas  in 
the  ceremonies  of  Passion  Week.  She  feels 
instinctively  that  the  man  is  lying  in  wait  for 
Rossi,  and  orders  her  coachman  to  drive  to 
the  house  of  the  Minister-President.  Enter- 
ing his  room,  she  finds  him  with  a  Polish 
general  and  a  priest,  and  cries  out,  "Count, 
do  not  go  to  the  Parliament  to-day." 

The  priest  says,  "  Have  we  not  warned 
you .'' "  and  the  general  adds,  pointing  to 
Blanca,  "  That  is  the  third  warning ! " 

But  the  three  warnings  are  in  vain.     Rossi 


A  Roman  Assassination  6j 

insists  upon  trusting  the  people ;  and  Blanca, 
too  excited  to  go  to  the  ParHament,  returns 
to  the  palace.  She  is  reminded  of  the  invita- 
tion to  the  Caldariva  festivities,  and  she 
remembers  the  words  of  the  "fair  Cyrene," 
as  the  Marchioness  Caldariva  had  been  called 
in  former  days :  — 

"The  men  have  made  the  world  a  prison 
for  us  women,  but  the  first  thought  of  every 
prisoner  is  how  to  escape." 

She  finally  decides  that  Manasseh  will 
decline  the  invitation  of  the  prince's  mistress, 
and  therefore  she  also  will  not  go. 

The  evening  papers  arrive,  and  the  first 
words  she  reads  are  these: 

"  Rossi  was  murdered  to-day  in  the  Parlia- 
ment House  y 

She  orders  her  carriage  to  drive  her  to 
Rossi's  daughter  and  his  widow,  but  is  told 
that  the  Roman  mob  is  dancing  the  Car- 
magnola  in  front  of  their  house,  and  the 
streets  are  impassable. 

Presently  the  crowd  comes  in  front  of  th^ 


6^f.  A  Roman  Assassination 

Cagliari  Palace,  bearing  Rossi's  assassin,  Zam- 
bianchi,  in  triumph  on  their  shoulders,  with 
Calderari,  the  head  of  the  Roman  police,  em- 
bracing instead  of  arresting  him ! 

The  guests  who  are  to  attend  the  masked 
ball  arrive  in  that  part  of  the  Palazzo  Cagliari 
occupied  by  Caldariva,  and  greet  the  horrible 
procession  without,  giving  wine  to  the  mob, 
the  members  of  which  dance  to  the  music 
played  in  the  palace.  But  presently  the  mob's 
love  of  plunder  induces  it  to  attack  the  palace 
itself,  whereupon  the  iron  shutters  are  closed 
by  the  people  within.  The  rioters  bombard 
the  palace  with  stones.  Presently  the  secret 
door  connecting  Blanca's  room  with  the  palace 
opens,  and  Caldariva  appears,  asking  Blanca 
to  let  her  guests  escape  the  mob  by  passing 
through  her  apartments. 

There  is  a  secret  passage,  unknown  to  the 
princess  but  known  to  the  marchioness,  by 
which  escape  can  be  made  to  the  Fontana  di 
Trevi,  and  pursuit  by  the  mob  eluded.  Blanca 
refuses  permission, 


A  Roman  Assassination  65 

"As  you  please,  princess,"  says  the  mar- 
chioness ;  "  but  I  would  remind  you  that  there 
is  a  certain  artist  from  Hungary  among  us 
who  will  certainly  risk  his  own  life  in  defense 
of  our  helpless  women,  if  you  do  not  permit 
our  escape." 

Again  Blanca  stands  undecided  between 
the  humiliation  of  knowing  Adoryan's  pres- 
ence at  the  orgies,  and  the  desire  to  save  his 
life.  Finally  she  says,  "You  may  enter, 
marchioness." 

The  lights  are  extinguished,  —  all  but  one, 
which  the  marchioness  takes  into  the  bath- 
room. There,  by  a  peculiar  movement  of  the 
faucet,  she  causes  the  heavy  bath-tub  to  roll 
to  one  side,  exposing  the  entrance  to  a  stair- 
way. 

Caldariva's  guests  and  servants,  sixty-five 
in  number,  bearing  with  them  all  the  treasures 
which  might  tempt  the  mob,  pass  through 
Blanca's  room,  and  vanish  by  the  secret 
passage.  The  noise  in  the  streets  shows  that 
the  crowd  has  succeeded  in  breaking  open  the 


66  A  Roman  Assassination 

palace  doors,  and  at  this  moment  the  mar- 
chioness closes  the  secret  door  between  the 
two  wings  of  the  palace. 

"  But  where  is  Manasseh  ? "  asks  Blanca. 

"He  was  not  there.  I  told  you  a  lie,  to 
induce  you  to  let  us  pass.  If  he  had  accepted 
my  invitation,  both  you  and  he  would  have 
been  in  my  power !  But  your  God  has 
taken  good  care  of  you.  May  we  never 
meet  again.  I  will  not  remain  in  your  debt 
for  helping  us  to  escape,  and  this  letter  will 
repay  you." 

Hereupon  she  hands  Blanca  a  letter,  and 
follows  her  guests  through  the  bath-room 
stair-case. 

Blanca  reads : 

"  Marchioness,  I  thank  you  for  your  invita- 
tion, but  I  will  not  enter  the  Palazzo  Cagli- 
ari.         [Signed]       Manasseh  Adoryan." 

Again  Blanca  is  saved  by  the  Unitarian's 
God! 

She  returns  to  the  secret  door,  to  try  to 


A  Roman  Assassination  6y 

hear  what  is  going  on  in  the  neighboring 
palace. 

Presently  one  of  the  plundering  mob  calls 
out,  "They  have  escaped  through  the  bath- 
room." 

Blanca  regards  herself  as  lost.  But  the 
marchioness  has  well  covered  her  retreat.  It 
was  the  marchioness's  bath-room  to  which  the 
mob  was  referring,  that  also  having  a  secret 
passage,  leading  to  the  largest  of  the  Roman 
sewers,  the  "Cloaca  Maxima."  Down  this 
the  rioters  swarm.  Thus  the  revelers  escape, 
while  their  pursuers  are  wandering  among  the 
filth  of  subterranean  Rome. 

By  the  Papal  judgment  separating  her  from 
her  libertine  husband,  the  Princess  Cagliari 
cannot  change  her  residence  without  the 
express  permission  of  the  Pope.  Her  friend 
Rossi,  who  might  have  obtained  this  permis- 
sion for  her,  is  now  murdered,  so  in  pursuit 
of  aid  to  secure  her  release  she  drives  to  the 

Bavarian   Countess   ,  who  promises   to 

intercede  for  her  at  the  Vatican. 


68  A  Roman  Assassination 

On  returning  to  her  prison-palace,  Blanca 
sees  chalked  on  the  doors  the  three  letters, 
"  C.  D.  T."  \Casa  del  Traditori,  "  House  of 
the  Traitors."]  Her  servants,  —  all  of  them 
paid  spies  of  Prince  Cagliari,  —  begin  to  for- 
sake the  house,  and  when,  on  the  morning 
following,   she  orders  her  carriage   to  drive 

again  to  the   Countess  to  receive  the 

Pope's  answer,  she  is  obliged  to  take  a  cab 
instead. 

The  countess  tells  her,  "  His  Holiness  is 
inflexible,  and  has  refused  my  petition.  If 
he  himself,  like  Daniel  in  the  lion's  den,  is 
not  afraid  to  remain  in  Rome  notwithstanding 
the  present  disturbances,  others  must  not  lose 
their  courage.  Let  every  one  remain  at  his 
post." 

As  it  shortly  proved,  the  countess  herself 
at  this  very  moment  was  perfecting  a  plan 
for  the  Pope's  flight  from  Rome.  This,  how- 
ever, Blanca  does  not  know.  She  resolves  to 
appeal  to  the  Pope  personally,  and  hurries  to 
the  Vatican,  but,  after  hastening  for  an  hour 


A  Roman  Assassination  6g 

from  one  door  to  another  in  the  great  halls, 
she  is  met  and  told  that  His  Holiness  will  not 
receive  any  one. 

There  is  but  one  hope  left  for  her,  and 
she  drives  to  the  house  of  the  Cittadino 
Scalcagnato,  the  shoemaker,  where  Adoryan 
has  his  studio. 

The  shoemaker  recognizes  her,  and  takes 
her  up  to  the  studio,  where  she  sees  a  large 
portrait  of  herself,  painted  by  Adoryan,  who 
is  absent.  Surprised  at  her  appearance  un- 
attended, knowing  how  dangerous  it  was  for 
a  lady  of  rank  to  pass  alone  through  the  mob, 
the  shoemaker  furnishes  her  with  a  disguise 
in  which  she  may  attempt  to  escape  from  the 
city.     She  then  returns  home  for  the  night. 


VII 

The  Pope's  Flight :  November  24,  1 848 


THE  following  morning,  Blanca  is  aston- 
ished to  see  her  own  name  in  big  letters 
in  the  Roman  papers.  This  is  what  she 
reads : 

"The  Princess  Blanca  von  Zboroy,  the 
divorced  wife  of  Prince  Cagliari,  assisted  the 
reactionaries  assembled  in  the  saloons  of  the 
Marchioness  Caldariva  to  escape  from  the  just 
vengeance  of  the  people,  by  allowing  them  to 
pass  through  her  private  apartments  into  a 
secret  passage  leading  to  the  Fontana  di 
Trevi." 

She  is  now  certainly  in  greater  danger 
than  ever.  And  to  the  risk  of  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  Roman  mob  in  her  proposed 


The  Pope's  Flight  yi 

escape  from  Rome  when  darkness  should 
again  fall,  another  risk  is  now  added.  The 
gas-mains  have  been  destroyed,  and  there 
will  be  no  light  in  Rome  on  that  dark 
November  night. 

She  spends  the  day  in  prayer  and  trem- 
bling. At  night-fall  a  lackey  enters  her 
room,  saying,  "  The  world  is  on  fire ! " 

It  is  the  Aurora  Borealis,  which  appears 
in  Rome  on  that  November  night  of  1848 
for  the  first  time  during  Papal  rule  in 
Rome. 

All  of  her  servants  flee,  and,  like  nearly 
all  the  superstitious  folk  of  Rome  that  day, 
believing  that  the  Day  of  Judgment  is  come, 
take  refuge  in  the  churches. 

Blanca  goes  out  in  search  of  some  one  to 
assist  her  as  servant,  finding  no  one.  But  in 
the  court-yard  she  meets  Adoryan,  who  has 
come  to  take  leave  of  her,  inasmuch  as  he  is 
about  to  return  to  Transylvania  to  help  his 
people  during  the  horrors  of  the  Revolution. 

She  shows  Adoryan  the  letter  which  he 


72  The  Pop's  Flight 

wrote  to  the  marchioness ;  also  the  statement 
concerning  herself,  in  the  newspaper,  which 
has  terrified  her.  He  explains  that  this  notice 
also  was  inserted  by  the  marchioness  who, 
notwithstanding  that  she  herself  had  been 
saved  from  the  vengeance  of  the  mob  by 
Blanca's  aid,  would  now  direct  that  vengeance 
against  Blanca,  and  thus  remove  the  only 
obstacle  to  her  marriage  with  the  prince. 

"  But  why  did  you  come  here  ?  "  asks  the 
princess,  of  Manasseh. 

"  To  take  leave  of  you.  I  am  going  home, 
because  civil  war  has  broken  out  in  my  native 
land." 

"  Are  you  going  to  fight .-' " 

"  No,  to  make  peace." 

"  Like  Rossi .? " 

"Yes,  and,  like  Rossi,  I  may  be  killed. 
But  I  will  do  what  I  can." 

Then  Blanca,  still  foreseeing  certain  death, 
or  what  is  worse,  if  she  stays  in  Rome,  asks 
Adoryan  to  take  her  with  him. 

"  No,  princess,  I  cannot  take  you  with  me." 


The  Pope's  Flight  yj 

"  Why  not  ? " 

"  Because  I  am  a  man.  I  could  defend  you 
against  all  the  world  except  myself !  " 

Yet,  though  he  dare  not  trust  himself  to 
travel  with  the  woman  whom  he  loves,  he  has 
prepared   another  means  of  escape  for  her. 

He  has  heard  that  the  Countess is  going 

to  leave  Rome  secretly  that  night,  and  he  has 
procured  a  passport  for  Blanca,  in  the  name 
of  a  lady's-maid,  and  now  offers  to  escort  her 
to  the  carriage  of  the  Bavarian  countess. 

"But,"  says  Blanca,  "the  countess  told  me, 
when  I  sought  the  Holy  Father's  permission 
to  leave  Rome,  that  every  woman  must  remain 
at  her  post." 

"She  said  that  to  hide  her  own  intentions." 

Blanca  has  no  alternative,  and,  returning 
to  her  rooms,  she  disguises  herself  in  the  dress 
of  her  former  maid. 

They  enter  a  cab,  and  ride  through  back 
streets  to  avoid  the  great  crowd  attracted  by 
the  Northern  Lights.  Coming  to  the  city 
guard,  Manasseh  shows  their  passports,  one 


7-^  I'he  Pope's  Flight 

for  himself  as  a  painter,  and  another  for  the 
princess  as  a  serving-woman. 

At  the  CoHseum  Gate  they  leave  the  cab. 
The  gate-keeper  is  an  old  acquaintance  of 
Manasseh's,  and  in  his  house  Blanca  and 
Manasseh  take  their  parting  meal  in  Rome, 
while  awaiting  the  arrival  of   the   Countess 


Her  carriage  arrives,  and  a  figure  in  female 
dress  —  a  costume  which  Blanca  recognizes 
as  one  she  has  seen  in  the  saloons  of  the 
countess  —  emerges  from  the  shadow  of  the 
Coliseum,  and  advances  toward  them.  Blanca, 
thinking  it  to  be  the  countess,  begs  permis- 
sion to  accompany  her  in  her  flight.  But  a 
man,  in  the  guise  of  a  lackey,  roughly  pushes 
her  back,  with  the  words,  "E  il  Papa  !  "  and, 
handing  the  supposed  lady  into  the  carriage, 
he  mounts  the  seat  and  drives  rapidly  away. 

"  It  is  the  Pope ! " 

The  Countess  Spaur,  who  afterwards  pub- 
lished in  the  Paris  Figaro  an  account  of  the 
Pope's  flight  from  Rome,  denied  that  he  was 


I^he  Pop's  Flight  y^ 

disguised  on  the  occasion  either  as  a  lackey 
or  a  woman  when  he  fled  in  the  Bavarian 
minister's  carriage.  Some  writers  say  he 
escaped  simply  as  the  religious  attendant  of 
the  countess ;  and  others  say,  as  her  lackey. 
C.  L.  Meyer  and  Gustav  Struve  say  that  he 
was  disguised  as  a  woman,  and  this  version 
of  the  story  has  been  used  by  Jokai. 

The  unquestioned  fact  is  that  the  Pope  did 
run  away,  notwithstanding  that,  being  the 
Vicar  of  God  upon  earth,  it  might  be  supposed 
that  his  faith  and  his  duty  would  lead  him 
rather  to  remain  in  the  Holy  City  than  to 
seek  refuge  in  the  realms  of  that  King  Bomba 
whom  previously  he  had  so  severely  con- 
demned, but  whom  in  later  days  he  praised 
in  most  fulsome  language. 

**E  il  Papa,  ed  lo  sono  la  Condannata.^^ 
[ "  It  is  the  Pope,  and  I  am  the  condemned 
one."  ] 

With  these  words  Blanca  flings  herself  into 
Adoryan's  arms,  and  says,  "Take  me  with 
you,  wherever  you  will !  "     {Note  5.) 


VIII 
What  will  He  do  with  Her? 

ADORYAN  has  now  no  choice.     He  con- 
ducts the  princess  to  a  seaport,  and  there 
takes  a  sailing-boat  for  Triest. 

Blanca  tells  him  the  story  of  her  life  in  the 
Palazzo  Cagliari,  and  repeats  the  suggestions 
made  to  her  by  the  Marchioness  Caldariva 
concerning  the  path  of  pleasure  that  she 
might  follow  with  Adoryan.  He  tells  her  of 
the  hard  path  of  duty  on  which  he  and  any 
wife  of  his  must  travel ;  and  when  she  joyfully 
makes  her  choice  for  that  hard  path,  and  feels 
herself  at  last  welcomed  by  Manasseh,  she 
cries  no  longer,  "A?  so7io  la  Condannata/' 
but  is  able  to  say  once  more,  "/<?  sono  la 
Beata  !  " 


What  will  He  do  with  Her?       yy 

They  remain  in  Triest  only  long  enough  to 
hire  a  smuggler  as  their  guide.  After  two 
days*  walking  and  four  days'  riding  in  peasants' 
carts,  they  reach  Budapest,  and,  learning  that 
the  princess's  former  lawyer,  Gabriel  Zimandy, 
is  at  that  time  on  his  wife's  estate  near  the 
Transylvanian  frontier,  they  decide  to  go 
through  Szolnok,  Piispok  Ladany,  and  Dc- 
breczin,  in  order  to  confer  with  him  concern- 
ing her  new  relationships. 

Zimandy,  who  had  renounced  his  Calvdnist 
faith  for  the  sake  of  the  fair  widow  Dormandy, 
has  long  ago  repented,  and  greets  Adoryan, 
when  they  arrive,  with  the  advice  never  to 
marry. 

"No  condemned  criminal,"  he  says, — "no 
persecuted  debtor,  has  a  worse  lot  than  a 
married  man !  Before  the  wedding,  woman 
is  an  angel ;  afterwards,  nothing  but  nerves 
and  bad  humor."  And  the  impression  made 
on  Blanca  by  the  hysterical  wife  is  equally 
disappointing. 

The  news  from  Adoryan's  family  is  disquiet- 


y8       What  will  He  do  with  Her? 

ing.  His  seven  brothers  have  all  taken  part 
in  the  uprising  against  Hapsburg  tyranny, 
and,  since  Manasseh  is  the  only  one  who  is 
not  compromised,  they  have  made  him  a  deed 
of  gift  of  all  their  estates,  so  that  if  they  are 
ruined  he  may  care  for  their  families.  Now 
Manasseh  is  on  his  way  home,  and,  if  he  also 
becomes  involved  in  the  civil  war,  the  fortunes 
of  all  together  may  be  confiscated. 

The  lawyer  advises  Princess  Blanca  to 
remain  under  his  protection,  and  not  risk  the 
loss  of  her  fortune  by  abandoning  the  Church 
of  Rome ;  while  Manasseh,  by  escaping  to 
Poland,  may  continue  to  avoid  being  com- 
promised. But  the  information  that  his  two 
brothers,  Simon  and  David,  are  already  pris- 
oners in  the  Dako-Roumanian  camp  induces 
Manasseh  to  push  forward  at  all  risks,  and 
Blanca  will  not  leave  him.  They  go  on  foot 
through  Dees  and  Nagybanya,  just  reaching 
Klausenburg  in  time  to  avoid  being  caught  in 
the  midst  of  one  of  the  bloody  engagements 
of  those  perilous  days. 


What  will  He  do  with  Her?       yg 

Thence,  accompanied  by  Manasseh's  brother 
Aaron,  the  couple  go  on  in  a  country  wagon, 
traveling  by  night,  for  they  have  to  pass  an 
army  of  ten  thousand  Wallachians  under 
Moga,  who  are  preparing  to  attack  Manasseh's 
birthplace. 

At  midnight  they  reach  the  house  of 
Cyprianu,  one  of  the  wealthiest  Wallachian 
yeomen.  His  daughter  Zenobia  is  betrothed 
to  Adoryan's  brother  Jonathan.  Here  they 
spend  the  remainder  of  that  night,  for  the 
whole  district  is  lit  up  by  signal-fires,  which 
indicate  the  danger  of  further  advance. 

In  the  morning,  Zenobia  accompanies  them 
as  a  guide,  but,  in  order  to  pass  Moga's  army 
unobserved,  they  must  journey  along  the  bed 
of  the  torrent,  and  sleep  in  a  cave  directly 
under  the  enemy's  camp.  While  Aaron  and 
Blanca  are  sleeping,  Manasseh  leaves  them, 
ascends  the  cliff  to  the  hostile  camp,  and 
enters  the  place  where  the  commander  Moga 
and  his  officers  are  playing  cards.  At  first 
unrecognized,  he  joins  them  in  the  game,  and 


8o       What  will  He  do  with  Her? 

wins  their  money.  Presently  Moga  recog- 
nizes him,  and  threatens  him  with  the  fate  of 
his  two  brothers.  After  some  discussion, 
however,  Manasseh  agrees  in  another  game 
to  stake  his  own  Ufe  for  the  freedom  of  his 
brothers,  —  and  wins.  Then,  through  his 
great  power  of  diplomacy,  he  makes  a  treaty 
of  peace  with  Moga  on  behalf  of  the  Toroczko 
people;  but  Moga  says  to  him,  "We  cannot 
guarantee  you  against  the  traitor  who  was 
born  among  your  own  people  !  " —  alluding  to 
the  arch-scoundrel,  Vaydar. 

The  next  morning,  Manasseh  and  his  two 
brothers  whom  he  has  won  from  captivity 
join  Blanca  and  Aaron,  and  all  together  con- 
tinue the  jojirney  to  Toroczko,  where  they 
arrive  in  the  evening  and  are  joyfully  wel- 
comed by  their  people. 

In  conformity  to  the  laws,  eighty-two  days 
must  elapse  before  Manasseh  and  Blanca  can 
marry.  First,  the  formalities  of  her  with- 
drawal from  the  Roman  Church,  and  her 
reception  among  the  Unitarians,  will  occupy 


What  will  He  do  with  Her?       8i 

a  fortnight.  Then  the  divorce-suit  will  occupy 
six  weeks.  Then  for  three  Sundays  the  bans 
must  be  published  from  the  pulpit. 

Meanwhile,  Blanca  lives  with  Manasseh's 
twin-sister  Anna,  and  learns  from  her  the 
particulars  of  Anna's  former  betrothal  with 
Benjamin  Vaydar,  and  of  Vaydar's  desertion 
of  her.  Anna  still  loves  the  renegade,  and, 
at  her  request,  Manasseh  and  his  seven 
brothers  have  promised  not  to  punish  him  for 
his  insult  to  her  and  her  family. 


IX 

The  Vampire  City  Again 

TOURING  the  continuance  of  the  Roman 
-■— ^  Revolution,  of  which  this  story  has  re- 
counted some  of  the  incidents,  the  three 
demons  of  Jokai's  romance  —  namely.  Prince 
Cagliari,  his  mistress,  the  Marchioness  Calda- 
riva,  and  the  prince's  secretary,  the  marchion- 
ess's lover,  Vaydar  —  have  sought  refuge  in 
Vienna.  Here  the  Court  etiquette  is  stricter 
than  in  Rome.  Prince  Cagliari,  from  his  prom- 
inence, is  persona  grata  at  the  Viennese  Court, 
but  the  marchioness,  whose  soirees  in  Rome 
were  visited  by  the  leading  nobility  of  the  Holy 
City,  finds  herself  avoided  by  all  the  leading 
women  of  Court  society  in  Vienna.  If,  how- 
ever, she  can  secure  Blanca's  death,  for  which 


'The  Vampire  City  Again  8j 

she  still  is  plotting,  and  then  marries  the 
prince,  she  will  be  eligible  for  "good  society." 
With  Vaydar's  aid,  her  spies  have  followed 
the  tracks  of  Blanca  and  Adoryan,  and  now, 
in  urging  the  prince  to  secure  the  death  of 
both,  she  says  to  him, — 

"All  that  you  could  do  was  to  leave  her 
unharmed  in  her  prison-palace  in  Rome.  But 
I  did  more  than  that ;  I  made  the  dogs  of 
Jezebel  howl  below  her  windows.  And  then 
came  this  Adoryan  and  spoiled  my  game.  A 
second  time  they  were  in  danger.  For  three 
hours  they  were  in  Triest,  in  the  toils  of  the 
police,  and  would  have  been  caught  if  they 
had  stayed  there  an  hour  longer.  But  they 
escaped  among  the  rocks  of  the  Karst.  I 
hoped  that  we  should  get  an  official  statement 
of  the  woman's  death,  and  then  Prince  Cagliari 
would  have  had  an  opportunity  of  answering 
the  question  whether  the  Marchioness  Cal- 
dariva  is  anything  more  to  him  than  a  pretty 
plaything ! " 

She  then  asks  the  prince  "  Did  you  receive 


84  T'he  Vampire  City  Again 

Blanca's  last  letter  ? "  And  the  prince  replies, 
"No;  I  gave  Vaydar  her  allowance  for 
December,  that  he  might  send  it  to  Rome." 

"  Ha,  ha !  I  compliment  you  on  your 
adopted  son !  He  is  a  very  genial  scamp. 
He  has  held  back  the  letter  in  which  Blanca 
informed  you  that  she  will  turn  Protestant 
and  get  a  divorce  from  you ;  while  the  five 
thousand  scudi  that  you  gave  him  for  her  will 
never  reach  her.  But  at  least  they  remain  in 
the  family,  for  he  has  bought  diamonds  for  me 
with  the  money  ! " 

"  What  do  you  want  of  me  t  Shall  we 
become  Protestants,  and  be  married  t " 

"  I  believe  it  would  be  easier  to  obtain  God's 
pardon  for  that  sin  than  for  what  I  am  going 
to  do.  When  the  couple  are  safe  in  Toroczko, 
it  will  be  easy  to  have  the  town  attacked  by 
the  Wallachians,  and  we  shall  soon  have  news 
of  their  death  !  " 

At  this  point,  to  get  rid  of  the  prince  for 
the  time  being,  she  sends  him,  though  it  was 
after  midnight,  to  the  War  Office  to  obtain 


'The  Vampire  City  Again  8^ 

the  key  by  which  to  decipher  some  dispatches 
which  Vaydar  has  sent  her. 

When  the  prince  has  gone,  she  hears  a 
signal  at  a  secret  door,  and  admits  Vaydar, 
who  brings  with  him  the  key  for  which  she 
has  sent  away  the  prince. 

With  a  laugh  she  says,  "  I  have  just  sent 
Jupiter  to  fetch  it." 

As  they  decipher  one  dispatch  after  another, 
they  read  of  the  horrors  perpetrated  by  the 
Wallachian  bands  in  Transylvania,  the  mas- 
sacres of  Zalathna,  Sard,  Borband,  Kisfalud, 
Kis-Enyed  and  Nagy-Enyed.  And  at  last,  in 
a  list  of  "killed,"  they  find  the  name  Adoryan. 
It  is  not  Manasseh,  however,  but  his  brother 
Jonathan,  the  lieutenant  of  hussars,  who  has 
fallen  in  a  skirmish.     {Note  p.) 

Turning  to  another  dispatch,  they  read  how 
Manasseh  has  saved  his  brothers  David  and 
Simon,  and  made  peace  with  the  Wallachians, 
and  that  he  is  safe  in  Toroczko  with  his 
bride. 

Enraged  at  the  failure  of  her  infernal  plans, 


86  'The  Vampire  City  Again 

the  marchioness  throws  the  dispatches  on  the 
floor,  and  asks  Vaydar,  — 

"  Have  you  no  spies  in  Toroczko  ? " 

"  There  was  one  traitor  there,  —  but  he  is 
now  here,  and  your  slave !  " 

"Well,  coward,  how  long  are  these  two 
people  to  live  ? " 

As  Vaydar  remains  silent,  the  "  fair  Cyrene  " 
takes  from  her  bosom  the  little  key  which 
opens  the  secret  entrance  to  her  room,  and 
says  to  Vaydar,  "This  key  belongs  to  him 
who  brings  me  the  news  of  Blanca's  death. 
What  do  you  say  ? " 

"I  think,  and  act!" 

"  Then,  a  rivederci  !  "  [  "  till  we  meet 
again."  ] 

Vaydar  leaves  by  the  secret  door,  and  goes 
to  the  Sperl,  which,  in  1848,  was  the  most 
fashionable  resort  of  Vienna's  demi-monde. 
There  he  finds  Prince  Cagliari,  with  two 
women. 

Cagliari  asks  what  he  has  done  with  the 
December  allowance  for  the  princess. 


The  Vampire  City  Again  8y 

"  That  is  what  I  came  to  speak  about.  I 
wish  you  would  let  me  have  the  January 
allowance,  at  once.  Princess  Blanca  has  been 
killed  in  the  attack  on  Nagy-Enyed,  and  I 
want  the  money  to  bring  her  corpse  to  Vienna, 
and  bury  it  as  becomes  the  wife  of  Prince 
Cagliari." 

The  prince  gives  Vaydar  his  pocket-book 
and  a  letter  of  credit.  It  is  now  early  morn- 
ing, and  Cagliari,  ignorant  of  Vaydar's  noc- 
turnal visit  to  the  Marchioness  Caldariva, 
drives  to  her  house,  and  says  to  her,  "  Rosina, 
my  wife  is  dead  !  " 

"Who  told  you  so.?" 

"  Your  little  favorite,  Vaydar.  I  have 
given  him  the  money  to  bring  her  corpse  to 
Vienna." 

Enraged  at  the  ease  with  which  the  prince 
is  gulled  by  his  secretary,  the  marchioness 
slaps  his  face.  Angered  by  the  blow,  he 
cries,  — 

"  What  I  have  said  is  true !  Vaydar  will 
bring    the    corpse   to  Vienna,      Blanca   von 


88  The  Vampire  City  Again 

Zboroy  has  slapped  my  face  before  the  whole 
world  by  seeking  a  divorce  from  me.  But 
that  is  not  all.  I  have  had  great  losses,  and 
need  money.  If  Blanca  dies,  her  brothers 
must  give  me  her  fortune  even  though  she  is 
divorced,  and  that  fortune  is  much  greater 
than  the  million  mentioned  in  the  deed.  But 
if  she  marries  this  Szekler,  then  not  only 
he  and  she,  but  the  whole  village,  must  be 
destroyed  !    And  I  have  the  power  to  do  it." 


f  — 

2     a 


X 

In  Transylvania 

WHILE  the  prince  and  his  mistress  are 
intriguing  in  Vienna,  Blanca  has  se- 
cured her  divorce,  and  has  married  Manasseh 
Adoryan.  Two  of  the  invited  guests  are 
absent,  Adoryan' s  brother  Jonathan  and  his 
bride  Zenobia,  daughter  of  the  Dako-Rou- 
manian  Cyprianu.  Of  Jonathan's  fate  we 
have  already  heard  in  the  cipher  dispatches 
read  by  Vaydar  to  the  Marchioness  Caldariva. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  wedding-festival, 
Zenobia  arrives,  on  horse-back,  leading  another 
horse  which  bears  her  lover's  corpse.  She 
says  to  the  new-made  wife,  — 

"You  have  invited  me  to  your  wedding, 
and  I  have  come  !     Show  me  to  your  guests, 


go  In  Transylvania 

and  tell  them  that  I  am  the  sister  of  the  men 
who  have  devastated  Felvinez  and  Sard,  and 
who  have  killed  Jonathan  Adoryan." 

But  Manasseh  takes  her  out  of  danger.  In 
parting  from  him,  she  says,  — 

"  Remember  what  the  tribune  of  Monasteria 
said  to  you  :  *  We  have  made  peace  with  you, 
and  will  keep  our  word.  But  tremble  if  a 
traitor  comes  from  Toroczko ! '  God  bless 
you  ! " 

To  conceal  Jonathan's  death  from  the 
guests,  who,  it  was  feared,  might  in  the  ex- 
citement of  the  hour  revenge  themselves  on 
the  unfortunate  Zenobia,  the  corpse  is  hidden 
in  the  bridal-chamber. 

After  the  burial  of  Jonathan,  Aaron  calls 
the  people  to  arms,  and  three  hundred,  mostly 
old  men  and  youths,  respond  to  his  call. 
Manasseh  warns  him  against  breaking  the 
truce  with  Moga. 

"I  am  not  going  to  revenge  our  dead 
brother,"  Aaron  replies,  "but  to  mind  Ze- 
nobia's    warning.      Our    Judas    Iscariot    is 


In  Transylvania  gi 

already  here.  There  is  a  new  man  among 
the  Wallachians,  who  calls  himself  Diurbanu, 
and  he  can  be  none  but  Vaydar,"  {Note  10.) 

In  fact,  four  thousand  men  are  already 
marching  on  Toroczko.  Vaydar  has  used  the 
money  given  him  by  Prince  Cagliari  to  raise 
this  troop,  and  is  now,  under  the  name 
Diurbanu,  given  by  the  Wallachians  to  their 
old  hero  Decebalus,  trying  to  fulfill  his  prom- 
ise to  the  Marchioness  Cagliari.  It  proves, 
however,  that,  using  the  advantages  offered 
by  the  narrow  pass  at  the  Musina  Bridge,  the 
troops  collected  by  Aaron  succeed  in  driving 
back  the  four  thousand. 

Some  days  later,  in  the  beautiful  Spring- 
time of  1849,  Manasseh's  wife  and  his  sister, 
while  gathering  Alpine  flowers  on  the  hill- 
tops, meet  a  man  whom  Anna  recognizes  as 
her  renegade  lover,  Vaydar,  in  the  disguise  of 
a  Wallachian  peasant.  He  advances  towards 
them  with  a  scythe,  but  the  sudden  appear- 
ance of  Manasseh  drives  him  away.  Two 
days  later  Vaydar,  alias  Diurbanu,  rides  in 


g2  In  Transylvania 

Dako-Roumanian  costume  through  the  de- 
serted streets  of  Abrudbanya,  and  in  a 
neighboring  church  addresses  the  assembled 
Wallachians,  urging  them  to  break  their  truce 
with  Toroczko.  They  refuse,  whereupon  he 
silences  their  objections  by  claiming  that  he 
is  betrothed  to  the  daughter  of  their  coun- 
tryman Cyprianu  (Zenobia,  the  bride  of 
Manasseh's  dead  brother),  and  must,  as  his 
marriage-gift,  avenge  the  death  of  her  father 
and  brothers. 

They  cast  lots  for  choice  between  Torda 
and  Toroczko.  The  lot  falls  on  Toroczko, 
and  in  the  last  days  of  July,  1849,  fugi- 
tives from  Toroczko  Szent  Gyorgy  bring 
the  news  that  Diurbanu's  troops  have  seized 
the  village  and  are  going  to  attack  Toroczko 
itself. 

The  men  fortify  the  place,  and  the  women 
prepare  to  kill  themselves  and  their  children 
rather  than  fall  into  the  enemy's  hands. 
Manasseh  again,  as  with  Moga,  resolves  at 
all  risks   to   himself  to  try  to  make  peace 


In  Transylvania  pj 

and  prevent  the  conflict.  He  goes  alone  to 
Diurbanu's  camp,  where  he  is  treacherously 
bound  and  imprisoned,  and  so  finds  himself  at 
last  powerless  in  the  hands  of  Vaydar,  who 
had  so  often  fled  before  him. 

Intent  upon  torturing  Manasseh,  Vaydar 
tells  him  his  plan,  which  Manasseh  is  now 
powerless  to  prevent :  how,  while  one  body 
of  his  troops  is  to  draw  the  attention  of 
Toroczko's  defenders  by  a  feigned  attack, 
another  will  enter  the  town  from  the  other 
side,  seize  the  women,  and  before  killing  Anna 
and  Blanca  will  violate  them  in  the  presence 
of  their  captive  husband  and  brother. 

"Your  men  will  find  only  two  corpses," 
answers  Manasseh,  "for  Anna  and  Blanca 
have  arranged  to  shoot  each  other  rather  than 
fall  into  your  power." 

To  take  away  even  that  last  crumb  of 
comfort,  Vaydar  declares  to  Manasseh  that 
Zenobia  is  now  betrothed  to  him,  and  says 
that  she  will  go  to  Blanca's  house  and  offer, 
for  the  sake  of  her  dead  lover  Jonathan,  to 


g4  I^  'Transylvania 

lead  them  to  a  place  of  safety,  and  will  there- 
upon betray  them  into  Vaydar's  hands. 

Vaydar  then  leaves  Manasseh  to  spend  the 
night  in  torturing  anticipations. 

In  the  night,  Manasseh  hears  his  name 
whispered.  The  speaker  is  a  gypsy  musician, 
who  loosens  the  ropes  that  bind  Manasseh  and 
enables  him  to  escape,  while  Vaydar  is  absent 
with  his  troops  making  a  night  attack  on 
Toroczko.  The  first  person  whom  he  meets 
on  leaving  his  prison  is  Zenobia,  who  tells 
him  that  his  wife  and  sister  are  safe,  and  that 
the  Wallachians  have  already  given  up  the 
attack  on  Toroczko,  misled  by  a  stratagem  of 
Aaron. 

She  takes  from  her  finger  the  betrothal- 
ring  which  in  former  days  Anna  had  given  to 
Vaydar,  and  which  Vaydar  had  given  to 
Zenobia  with  the  words,  "  So  long  as  the 
woman  lives  who  gave  me  this  ring  I  cannot 
marry  you."  From  her  words,  Manasseh 
gathers  that  Zenobia  has  learned  all  Vaydar's 
devilish  plans  against  Anna  and  Blanca,  and 


In  Transylvania  g$ 

pretended  to  support  them  in  order  to  save 
the  women.  Finally,  before  taking  leave  of 
him,  she  tells  him  where  he  may  find  Vaydar, 
crippled  by  a  wound  received  in  the  flight 
from  Toroczko. 

Again  Manasseh  resists  the  temptation  to 
save  himself  and  his  house  by  killing  their 
worst  enemy,  and  instead,  allows  him  to 
escape.  This  is  the  last  of  the  attacks  on 
Toroczko,  and  six  weeks  later  Vaydar  returns 
to  Vienna,  with  nothing  to  show  the  prince 
for  his  money,  and  bringing  back  only  his 
own  broken  leg  in  place  of  the  corpse  whose 
burial  was  to  be  the  prelude  of  the  prince's 
wedding  with  Caldariva. 


XI 
The  Last  Revenge 

"POR  three  years  after  the  events  recounted 
■'•  in  the  last  chapter,  Manasseh  and  his 
people  labor  in  the  iron-works  to  repair  the 
damage  their  town  has  suffered  through  the 
horrors  of  civil  war;  but  the  prince  and 
Vaydar  are  still  intriguing  against  them  in 
Vienna,  and  finally  Manasseh  and  his  best 
workmen  are  conscripted  into  the  Austrian 
army  for  a  term  of  six  years,  in  direct 
infringement  of  their  constitutional  rights. 
This  is  in  the  worst  days  of  the  Austro- 
Russian  reaction,  just  before  the  Crimean 
War  weakens  the  power  that  was  above  all 
others  responsible  for  the  white  slavery  of 
Europe. 


Copy  of  a  medal  struck  in  1783  in  lionor  of  Kmperor 
Joseph  II.,  siiowing  the  primitive  method  of  mining  and 
smelting  irfin  at    Toroc/ivo  up  to  1.S50. 

—  See  p|).  96,  97. 


The  Last  Revenge  9/ 

Manasseh  accepts  his  fate,  and  is  sent  with 
his  countrymen  to  Verona  in  Italy.  During 
his  absence  his  wife  manages  his  business  of 
iron  mining  and  smelting.  He  does  his  duty 
as  a  soldier  in  time  of  peace,  and  is  raised  to 
the  rank  of  sergeant,  but  the  recommendation 
of  his  superiors  to  make  him  a  commissioned 
officer  is  nullified  through  the  influence  of 
Prince  Cagliari  in  Vienna. 

After  Russia,  the  turn  comes  to  Austria, 
whose  worst  enemies  are  the  people  in  her 
own  government.  In  the  persons  of  Prince 
Cagliari,  the  Marchioness  Caldariva,  and  Ben- 
jamin Vaydar,  Jokai  represents  those  who 
were  really  responsible  for  the  failure  of 
Austria  to  withstand  the  attack  of  Italy  and 
France  in  1858. 

Inasmuch  as  Jokai's  representation  has 
been  criticized  in  Austria  as  incorrect,  he 
refers  in  the  third  edition  of  "  Egy  az  Isten," 
published  in  1896,  to  "Der  Neue  Pitaval," 
Vol.  XXXV.,  page  12,  et  scq.,  where  we 
find  a  full  historical   account  of   those   dis- 


g8  The  Last  Revenge 

closures  which  led  two  of  the  leading  func- 
tionaries in  Austria,  Lieutenant-Colonel  von 
Eynatten  and  Baron  von  Bruck,  to  commit 
suicide.  Both  of  them  had  been  guilty  of 
frauds  on  the  government  in  connection  with 
contracts  for  the  supply  of  the  troops  in 
Lombardy  with  meat,  breadstuffs  and  cloth- 
ing, which  cost  the  government  millions  of 
dollars,  while  depriving  the  soldiers  of  the 
food  necessary  to  keep  them  in  good  fighting 
condition. 

In  our  romance.  Prince  Cagliari  is  the 
Austrian  diplomatist  who  makes  these  frauds 
possible  by  his  influence  in  the  administration 
of  the  Austrian  army,  and  thereby  obtains 
the  large  sums  of  money  which  he  needs  for 
his  mistress,  the  Marchioness  Caldariva,  while 
Benjamin  Vaydar  is  the  go-between  who 
arranges  matters  with  the  contractors  and 
bankers,  the  documents  being  kept  in  the 
boudoir  of  the  marchioness. 

After  an  evening's  visit  to  the  theatre, 
CagUari  drives  to  the  palace  of  the  marchion- 


The  Last  Revenge  gg 

ess,  and  when  he  leaves  her,  Vaydar  enters 
by  the  secret  door  of  her  boudoir. 

"And  now,  my  little,  limping  devil,"  she 
says,  "how  have  you  arranged  with  your 
Italians  ? "     {Note  II.) 

"They  have  got  the  contract  for  forty 
thousand  head  of  cattle ;  but  the  soldiers  will 
never  eat  any  of  the  beef,  and  the  State  will 
have  to  pay  a  heavy  indemnity  to  the  con- 
tractors for  non-fulfillment  of  contract.  But 
the  profit  will  hardly  suffice  to  pay  for  Papa 
Cagliari's  champagne." 

"  You  have  done  well,"  says  the  marchion- 
ess ;  "  and  now  I  will  tell  you  another  of 
Jupiter's  plans.  Here  is  a  contract  for  bread- 
stuffs,  which  will  not  leave  much  profit  at 
present  rates,  but  by  mixing  the  rye  with  dirt 
and  chaff  we  can  make  a  million  or  two." 

"  Has  the  old  man  any  other  commission  } " 
asks  Vaydar. 

"  Yes,  here  is  a  specification  for  army 
clothing  for  the  army  in  Italy,  with  the  name 
of  the  man  who  is  to  have  the  contract." 


100  The  Last  Revenge 

"  But  there  is  no  money  in  that.  The 
prices  are  too  low." 

"He  can  save  a  hundred  thousand  florins 
by  making  the  cloth  two  inches  narrower,  and 
taking  a  few  threads  less  to  the  inch." 

"  But  that  is  not  worth  the  risk.  Is  there 
nothing  more  profitable  } " 

"Yes,  there  is  another  matter.  Many  of 
the  articles  will  have  to  be  imported  from 
England,  and  the  daily  fluctuations  in  the 
exchange  can  be  so  manipulated  as  to  give 
us  an  extra  profit  of  five  per  cent." 

"  But  that  is  sure  to  be  discovered." 

"  Don't  be  afraid.  A  victorious  campaign 
will  hide  everything,  and,  if  we  are  beaten, 
dead  men  tell  no  tales.  Apropos !  is  not 
'our  mutual  friend,'  Manasseh  Adoryan, 
among  those  who  are  to  be  killed  ? " 

"  Yes,  my  eye  is  upon  him.  But  he  is  not 
easily  caught ;  our  agents  have  not  been  able 
to  bribe  him,  and  all  the  men  of  his  battalion 
are  sneered  at  as  '  Puritans.'  " 

"  I  would  like  to  see  what  this  apostle  of 


The  Last  Revenge  loi 

peace  will  do  if  he  is  ordered  into  action. 
Will  he  fight,  or  throw  away  his  gun  ? " 

*'  He  will  die  in  either  case." 

"  But  that  is  not  what  I  want.  If  he  were 
only  wounded,  then  his  wife  would  go  to 
Italy  to  nurse  him,  and  one  could  make 
away  with  her  at  that  time  without  exciting 
suspicion." 

"  You  are  very  impatient,  marchioness." 

"  Do  you  think  I  am  in  a  hurry  to  marry 
the  prince  "i  He  cannot  get  lilanca's  money 
till  she  is  dead." 

"Am  I  not  stealing  enough  for  Prince 
Cagliari .? " 

"Are  you  jealous.?  I  cannot  marry  you. 
I  need  a  husband  who  can  annihilate  all 
whom  I  hate.  Be  you  content  to  remain  as 
my  accomplice,  with  whom  I  can  steal,  murder, 
and  amuse  myself." 

She  thereupon  learns  from  Vaydar  the 
tricks  by  which  he  manages  to  defraud  the 
government,  and  dismisses  him. 


XII 

Solferino:   June  24,  1859 

WHILE  the  worst  enemies,  both  of  Aus- 
tria and  Italy,  are  intriguing  in  Vienna 
to  enrich  themselves  at  the  cost  of  the  tax- 
payer and  the  soldier,  Manasseh  Adoryan  is 
serving  as  sergeant  with  his  "  Puritan  "  bat- 
talion on  the  plains  of  Italy ;  and  it  is  when 
the  brave  but  ill-officered  Austrian  army  is 
awaiting  at  Solferino  the  attack  of  the  French 
and  Italian  soldiers  that,  for  the  first  time,  he 
receives  an  order  in  opposition  to  the  com- 
mandment, "Thou  shalt  not  kill." 

The  Austrian  army  is  almost  exhausted  by 
hunger  and  fatigue.  Many  of  the  soldiers 
have  not  tasted  meat  for  a  week  (notwith- 
standing the  contract  for  forty  thousand  oxen). 


Solferino  loj 

and  they  are  ill  from  eating  the  unwholesome 
bread  provided  under  the  contracts  managed 
by  Vaydar. 

Manasseh's  battalion  is  ordered  to  occupy 
a  hill  covered  with  graves  and  cypress-trees, 
where  the  dead  Germans,  Austrians,  Hun- 
garians, Poles,  Zouaves,  Croats  and  Italians 
lie  more  thickly  above  the  earth  than  those  in 
the  graves  below  it.  Beyond  this  hill  lies  the 
key  to  the  whole  battle-field,  the  historic  farm- 
house known  as  the  Madonna  della  Scoperta. 
Every  attempt  of  the  Austrians  to  take  it  has 
hitherto  failed,  and  has  cost  the  loss  of  thou- 
sands of  men ;  and  now  Manasseh's  battalion 
is  ordered  to  attack  it. 

He  advances  without  firing,  singing  Luther's 
hymn,  "A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God,"  and 
his  companions  follow  his  example.  Many  of 
them  are  killed,  but  the  remainder,  without 
firing  a  single  shot,  succeed  in  entering  the 
fort. 

The  French  guard  hurries  up,  to  drive 
them  out,  and  the  Austrian  commander  orders 


10^  Solferino 

Manasseh's  battalion  to  fire.  The  men  look 
to  Manasseh. 

"What  does  this  mean?"  asks  the  com- 
mander. 

Manasseh  answers,  "God  has  forbidden 
murder,"  and  his  companions  repeat  his  words. 
"  We  do  our  duty ;  we  go  where  you  send  us ; 
but  we  will  not  kill." 

"  But  the  enemy  will  kill  you." 

"Let  them  do  it."     {Note  12.) 

Through  the  bad  generalship  of  the  Aus- 
trian commanders,  the  battle  is  lost;  and 
Manasseh  and  his  companions  are  imprisoned 
at  Brescia. 

The  Hungarian  prisoners  are  invited  to 
form  a  legion,  and  to  join  the  French  and 
Italians  in  saving  Hungary  from  its  Austrian 
oppressors.  That  is  a  cause  for  which  a 
Christian  man  may  fight,  and  Manasseh 
accepts  a  major's  commission  in  the  Hun- 
garian legion. 

He  goes  to  his  commander,  and  finds  him 
half  unconscious  from  the  use  of  hasheesh; 


Solferino  lo^ 

but  the  man  is  just  able  to  hand  him  a  dis- 
patch with  the  words,  "  Villaframa  —  Peace 
is  concluded.  The  Hungarian  legion  is  dis- 
banded, and  its  members  may  return  to  their 
homes  without  fear  of  punishment." 

In  the  early  days  of  Autumn,  Manasseh 
reaches  Toroczko,  and  sees  his  wife  and 
children  after  an  absence  of  nearly  six  years. 
He  finds  his  sister  Anna  suffering  from  a 
mortal  illness. 


XIII 
Retribution 

DEAD  men  tell  no  tales,"  said  the  Mar- 
chioness Caldariva  to  Vaydar;  but 
enough  of  the  Austrian  soldiers  have  re- 
turned from  their  defeats  in  Lombardy  to 
tell  the  story  of  their  hardships,  and  an 
Austrian  general  [ Gerhasuser ? ]  says,  "The 
men  who  are  responsible  for  these  army 
contracts  deserve  the  gallows." 

Two  of  the  chief  criminals  vanish  at  the 
beginning  of  the  investigation,  and  are  never 
heard  of  again.  The  general  in  whose  rooms 
the  contracts  were  signed,  unable  to  bear  the 
shame  of  exposure,  stabs  and  hangs  himself 
[General  von  Eynatten].  The  witnesses  re- 
ceive threatening  letters,  and  dare  not  tell 


Retribution  loy 

what  they  know.  A  statesman,  when  sum- 
moned to  give  evidence,  burns  his  papers, 
opens  a  vein,  and  dies  [  Baron  von  Bruck  ]. 
A  bank-director  and  celebrated  political  econ- 
omist escapes  from  his  prison  and  vanishes. 

These  are  only  the  tools ;  the  chief  crim- 
inals dwell  in  palaces  and  bribe  the  editors 
of  Vienna's  yellow  journals  to  praise  them 
as  PATRIOTS,  in  big  letters,  and  to  revile 
as  TRAITORS  all  who  venture  to  demand 
an  investigation. 

The  president  of  the  investigating  court 
becomes  suddenly  ill,  and  the  worst  suspicions 
are  expressed  as  to  the  cause  of  his  illness. 
Another  judge  takes  up  the  investigation. 
He  too  becomes  ill  and  dies. 

The  Borgias  and  the  Ferraras  are  at  their 
work  in  Vienna.  The  accused,  the  witnesses, 
the  judges,  all  vanish,  or  die.  Only  Benjamin 
Vaydar,  the  go-between,  remains,  relying  on 
the  protection  of  his  secret  employers. 

One  day  he  is  summoned  before  the  police 
commissioner,  who  tells  him  that   he   must 


io8  Retribution 

leave  Vienna  within  twenty-four  hours,  and 
that  a  poUceman  will  accompany  him  to  his 
destination.  He  returns  to  his  house,  and 
makes  the  usual  signal  at  the  secret  door  of 
the  Marchioness  Caldariva,  but  is  not  received 
as  usual,  and  suspects  that  his  banishment 
from  Vienna  is  due  to  her  influence  or  that 
of  Prince  Cagliari. 

At  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening  he  sees 
her  closed  carriage  leave  the  palace.  Sus- 
pecting the  marchioness  of  an  attempt  to 
avoid  an  interview  with  him  before  his  de- 
parture, he  follows  her  to  the  opera,  and, 
escaping  from  the  supervision  of  the  police- 
man, enters  her  box,  and  asks  her  for  a 
private  interview.  She  asks  him  to  come 
to  the  secret  door  as  usual,  but  he  insists 
on  having  the  key.  The  marchioness,  fear- 
ing a  scene  in  the  opera,  gives  it  to  him,  and 
he  returns  to  his  house,  followed  by  the 
detective  who  has  been  waiting  for  him  at 
the  theatre-door. 

Returning  to  his  house,  he  orders  his  valet 


Retribution  log 

to  pack  his  trunks,  and  enters  the  Marchion- 
ess Caldariva's  boudoir  by  the  secret  door. 
There  he  waits  two  hours  in  vain,  and,  to 
revenge  himself  on  the  marchioness  for  her 
failure  to  keep  the  appointment,  steals  her 
writing-case  with  the  incriminating  documents, 
and,  returning  to  his  house,  accompanies  the 
policeman  to  the  railway  by  which  he  must 
go  to  his  native  place. 

Meanwhile,  the  marchioness,  on  leaving  the 
theatre,  goes  to  one  of  the  cafe-chantants  in 
the  suburbs  of  Vienna,  and  remains  there 
until  her  spy  brings  her  the  news  of  Vaydar's 
departure.  Then  she  returns  to  her  palace, 
and  finds  that  her  writing-case  is  missing. 
She  laughs,  and  says,  "  That  is  well !  He 
has  done  it  himself  !     It  is  not  my  fault." 

She  has  put  something  in  the  writing-case 
which  will  make  her  lover's  proposed  revenge 
harmless  to  her.     {Note  IJ.) 


XIV 
The  Return  of  the  Prodigal 

\  /"AYDAR'S  former  betrothed,  Anna  Ador- 
'  yan,  has  heard  of  his  disgrace,  and  is 
dying  in  Toroczko.  Her  last  request  to  her 
brother  Manasseh  is  that  he  will  receive 
Vaydar  kindly,  and,  if  he  dies,  bury  him  in 
her  grave. 

The  policeman  brings  Vaydar  to  Budapest, 
and  there  he  is  told  that  he  must  be  sent  to 
Transylvania,  where  every  one  will  recognize 
him  as  the  "  Diurbanu "  who  has  brought 
death  and  misery  to  so  many  of  the  people. 

He  is  brought  to  the  very  house  in  Toroczko 
where  his  former  bride's  corpse  is  now  await- 
ing burial,  and  there  Manasseh  takes  charge 
of  his  now  impotent  enemy,  and  promises  to 


'The  Return  of  the  Prodigal       iii 

shelter  and  supply  him  with  remunerative 
employment. 

Entering  the  chief  room  of  Manasseh's 
house,  Vaydar  sees  Anna's  corpse,  and  in 
her  hands  his  own  portrait.  Overcome  by 
the  contrast  between  what  might  have  been, 
and  the  infamous  life  that  he  has  led,  he  falls 
senseless,  and,  waking  up,  finds  Manasseh 
tending  him. 

He  resolves  to  go  to  Herrmannstadt,  and 
there  denounce  Prince  Cagliari  and  the  mar- 
chioness, and  spends  the  night  in  examining 
the  incriminating  papers  in  the  stolen  writing- 
desk  of  the  marchioness. 

The  next  morning,  the  servant  who  has 
gone  to  light  the  fire  in  Vaydar's  bedroom 
returns  to  tell  Manasseh  that  Vaydar  is  dying, 
and  that  there  is  a  strange  smell  in  the  room. 

Manasseh,  on  entering,  sees  the  papers  and 
the  desk,  and,  suspecting  poison,  throws  all 
into  the  fire,  so  that  they  can  do  no  more 
harm.  But  the  Italian  poison  with  which 
the  Marchioness  Caldariva  had  impregnated 


112       The  Return  of  the  Prodigal 

the  documents  has  done  its  work  on  Vaydar, 
and,  while  the  Adoryan  family  are  burying 
Anna,  Vaydar  dies. 

When  they  have  returned  from  Anna's 
burial,  Manasseh  says  to  the  mourners,  "  We 
have  another  corpse  to  bury.  Our  brother 
Benjamin  has  come  back  to  us  repentant,  and, 
as  he  saw  the  corpse  of  our  sister,  he  died 
of  a  broken  heart." 

*  Only  the  Marchioness  Caldariva  knew  the 
real  cause  of  Vaydar's  death ;  and  since  only 
he  died,  and  no  one  else,  she  knew  that  the 
compromising  documents  were  destroyed. 
Yet  she  and  Prince  Cagliari,  after  all  their 
efforts  to  secure  Blanca's  death  have  failed, 
remain  exposed  to  the  contempt  of  the  world 
in  which  they  live. 

The  family  of  Adoryan  still  prospers  in 
Toroczko,  and  this  is  the  story  that  never 
ends. 

While  this  romance  was  appearing  in  the 
Hungarian  paper,  a  German  translation  was 


The  Return  of  the  Prodigal       iij 

simultaneously  published  in  a  Vienna  journal. 
But  when  the  part  relating  to  the  frauds  in 
which  von  Eynatten  and  von  Bruck  were 
concerned  appeared  in  Budapest,  the  Vienna 
journalist  stopped  the  publication  of  the 
romance.  Thus  the  last  remark  of  the  nov- 
elist, "the  story  that  has  no  end,"  was  literally 
true  of  the  German  translation,  in  another 
sense  than  that  in  which  Jokai  intended  it. 


I 


Notes 

Note  i  —  Wealth  of  Roman  and  Anglican  Bishops. 

The  Christian  Life  of  London  gives  the  amount  of 
money  in  pounds  sterling  (at  ^4.84)  left  behind  them 
by  various  bishops  and  archbishops  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  as  follows  : 


Tait 

;^3  5.000 

Tufnell                      ;^65,ooo 

Benson 

35,000 

Thomson  (York)         55,000 

Philpot 

60,000 

Goodwin                        19,000 

Creighton 

29,000 

Perry  (Melbourne)      33,000 

Dumford 

37,000 

Brown  (Winchester)    36,000 

Tozer 

10,000 

Harvey  (Bath)              12,000 

Trollope 

50,000 

Pelham  (Norwich)       12,000 

Wordsworth 

21,000 

Walsham  How            72,000 

But  the  incomes  of  Romanist  bishops  in  Austro- Hun- 
gary are  much  greater  than  those  of  the  Anglicans. 
According  to  Sydney  Whitman,  the  Primate  of  Hun- 
gary and  Archbishop  of  Gran  has  an  income  of  a 
million  florins,  or  over  ^400,000  annually  ;  the  Bishop 
of  Olmuetz  in  Moravia  400,000  florins,  or  over  %  1 60,- 
000,  and  Prince  Fuerstenberg,  the  late  Cardinal  Arch- 


Ji6  Notes 

bishop  of  Olmuetz,  left  behind  him  a  fortune  of 
between  ten  million  and  fifteen  million  dollars.  In 
Hungary,  land  to  the  extent  of  1,500,000  acres,  or 
about  two  per  cent,  of  the  whole  territory,  belongs  to 
the  Romanist  Church. 

A  still  more  characteristic  instance  of  the  amassing 
of  millions  by  clerical  dignitaries  is  that  of  Cardinal 
Antonelli,  who,  at  the  time  when  the  hero  of  our 
novel  is  on  his  way  to  Rome,  was  president  of  the 
Papal  Cabinet.  Of  him  the  historian  Nippold  says 
["The  Papacy  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  Putnams, 
New  York,  1900,  page  191]:  **  Secretary  of  State 
Antonelli  took  charge  of  the  money  exactions.  The 
property  which  the  latter  left  amounted  to  more  than 
a  hundred  rnilUons.  His  natural  daughter  (the 
Countess  Lambertini)  in  vain  demanded  her  part. 
Before  this  celebrated  suit  revealed  to  his  astonished 
contemporaries  the  private  character  of  the  cardinal, 
there  had  already  been  drawn  for  the  world  of  the 
*  faithful '  a  picture  of  Antonelli  in  the  character  of  a 
saint.  This  was  done  by  the  German  Monsignore 
Dewaal." 

The  Romanist  clergy  have  two  sources  of  income 
not  available  for  their  Anglican  rivals  —  ( i )  the  con- 
fessional, by  which  they  become  acquainted  with  all 
the  family  secrets  of  their  flock  ;  and  (2)  the  mon- 
strous delusion  that  it  is  possible  for  a  human  being, 
by  prayers  or  masses,  to  exercise  an  influence  on  the 


Notes  117 

fate  of  the  soul  after  death.  Even  the  King  of  Hun- 
gary and  Emperor  of  Austria,  after  the  greatest  sorrow 
of  his  life,  the  catastrophe  of  Meyerling,  telegraphed 
to  ask  an  Italian  Pope  to  decide  whether  his  dead  son 
should  have  Christian  burial  !  And  side  by  side  with 
this  enormous  wealth  of  the  priestly  class,  we  see  that 
grinding  poverty  of  the  tax-paying  wage-earner  which 
makes  even  the  worst  conditions  of  our  Pennsylvanian 
coal-fields  seem  a  heaven  in  comparison  to  what  the 
Austrian  immigrant  has  left  behmd  him. 

See  also  William  Cobbett,  "Legacy  to  Pkrsons " 
[London,  1835],  and  Reverend  Hubert  Handley, 
M.A.,  **  The  Fatal  Opulence  of  Bishops "  [London, 
1901]. 

Note  2  —  Marriage  and  Divorce. 

For  all  questions  as  to  the  Romanist  laws  of  marriage 
and  divorce,  I  refer  to  Rokitansky,  **  De  Matrimonio ' ' ; 
Schulze,  *  *  Ehcrccht ' ' ;  Walter,  *  *  Kirchenrecht ' ' ;  and 
the  section  on  "  Marriage  "  in  **  Compendium  Theo- 
logiae  Moralis,"  auctore,  J.  P.  Gury,  S.  J. 

Note  3  —  Unitarians  in  Transylvania. 

For  an  account  of  the  Unitarians  in  Transylvania 
sec  Andrew  Chalmer's  *'  Transylvanian  Recollec- 
tions"  ;  the  historical  introduction  to  Doctor  Ree's 
**  Translation  of  the  Racovian  Catechism  "  [London, 
1818] ;  and  articles  by  Reverend  J.  J.  Tayler,  C.  H. 


li8  Notes 

Dall,  S.  A.  Steinthal,  R.  S.  Morison,  Edward  Tagart, 
Henry  lerson,  Alexander  Gordon,  George  Boros,  and 
myself,  in  various  English  and  American  periodicals. 
Also  Benko's  "Transylvania"  [Vienna,  1778], 
vols.    I  and  2. 

Note  4  —  Transylvanian  Divorces. 

Jokai  makes  his  hero  advise  the  law^yer  to  let  his 
client  become  a  Protestant,  in  order  to  obtain  a  divorce, 
which  will  permit  her  re-marriage  ;  and  later  on  in 
the  novel  he  fairly  represents  the  usages  prevailing 
among  Unitarians  and  all  other  Protestants  in  Hungary, 
in  the  year  1875.  ■^"^  ^^^  careless  reports  of  Roman- 
ist visitors  to  Transylvania  have  been  so  maliciously 
abused  by  the  editors  of  sectarian  papers,  both  in  the 
United  States  and  in  England,  to  discredit  the  Hun- 
garian Unitarians,  that  a  fuller  notice  of  this  matter 
seems  advisable. 

A  writer  in  Blackwood^ s  Edinburgh  Magazine 
[April,  1888],  reviewing  Madame  E.  de  Laszowski 
Gerard's  "Land  beyond  the  Forests,"  says  "  Klaren- 
burg  [probably  a  misprint  for  Klausenburg]  has  one 
notable  characteristic,  placing  it  in  the  van  of  civilized 
jurisprudence,  even  before  Illinois  or  Colorado.  By 
purchasing  a  house  there  you  acquire  also  the  right  of 
divorce,  and  a  row  of  rotten  houses  is  specially  con- 
secrated for  the  use  of  ill-mated  couples. ' '  Now,  the 
authoress  of  the  book  under  review  expressly  declines 


Notes  iig 

to  pledge  her  word  for  the  veracity  of  anything  con- 
tained in  its  pages,  in  which  I  have  detected  numerous 
matters  which  do  not  agree  with  my  own  observations. 
Nevertheless,  xht  Blackwood  's  reviewer  quotes  Madame 
Gerard's  Hbelous  remarks  without  qualification,  and 
other  editors,  quoting  Blackwood  'j,  are  only  too  glad  to 
spread  the  hbel  against  those  whose  doxy  may  differ 
from  their  own. 

So  long  as  Austro-Hungary  was  governed  by  the 
Papal  Concordat  of  1855,  civil  marriage  was  not  per- 
mitted, and  all  questions  of  marriage  and  divorce  were 
setded  by  the  ecclesiastical  courts ;  the  Romanist,  the 
Calvinist,  the  Unitarian  and  the  Jew  each  having  his 
own  jurisdiction  ;  and  both  in  Austro-Hungary  and 
Germany  the  laws  of  divorce  are  very  loosely  admin- 
istered, and  divorces  by  collusion  are  very  frequent. 
So,  for  instance,  in  Hamburg,  a  maid-servant  inherited 
a  large  fortune.  Her  lawyer  paid  his  wife  a  large  sum 
to  induce  her  to  obtain  a  divorce  from  him,  that  he 
might  marry  his  wealthy  client.  The  last  Electoral 
Prince  of  Hesse-Cassel,  great-grandson  of  him  who 
sold  a  number  of  his  subjects  to  King  George  the 
Third  for  ^15,000,000  to  fight  against  the  American 
colonists,  fell  in  love  with  the  wife  of  a  Prussian  officer, 
and  bribed  the  latter  to  obtain  a  divorce  from  the 
woman,  whom  he  married  afterwards. 

Wherever  there  is  a  State  Church  there  are  many 
who,  without  believing  its  tenets,  conform  to  it  for 


120  Notes 

selfish  reasons,  until  some  other  selfish  reason  induces 
their  withdrawal.  Many  a  priest  has  in  this  way 
relieved  himself  from  the  vow  of  celibacy,  which  is 
not  always  in  practice  synonymous  with  chastity  ;  and 
some  years  ago  a  prominent  Romanist  prince,  in  order 
to  relieve  himself  of  a  wife  who  had  been  first  seduced 
and  then  abandoned  by  the  son  of  a  celebrated  Prussian 
statesman,  became  a  Protestant.  Charles  Boner,  in 
*'  Transylvania,  its  Products  and  its  People  "  [London, 
1865],  pages  483,  496,  alludes  to  the  great  fre- 
quency of  divorce  among  the  German  Lutherans  in 
Transylvania,  but  makes  no  charge  of  this  kind  against 
the  Unitarians,  who  have  a  high  reputation  for  mo- 
rality. 

Note  5  —  Immorality  in  Rome. 

For  an  account  of  the  immorality  in  Rome  under 
Pope  Pius  the  Ninth,  see  Chap.  XIX.,  "My  Con- 
sulate in  Rome,"  in  W.  J.  Stillman's  *'  Autobiography 
of  a  Journalist"  [Boston,  1901];  and  for  Papal  in- 
trigues in  Italian  politics,  see  Chap.  XXXIX.  of  the 
same  book.  See  also  numerous  passages  in  Nippold, 
**The  Papacy  in  the  Nineteenth  Century"  [Put- 
nams.  New  York  and  London,  1 900] . 

Note  6  —  Transylvania. 

For  an  account  of  Adoryan's  native  place,  see 
Charles  Boner's  "Transylvania,  its  Products  and  its 


Notes  121 

People."  In  early  life  Maurus  Jokai  hesitated  whether 
to  become  a  painter  or  a  writer,  and  the  wonderful 
descriptions  of  natural  scenery  in  the  book  under  notice, 
as  well  as  in  "The  Modem  Midas"  and  many  others 
of  his  writings,  indicate  a  great  power  of  depicting 
natural  beauty. 

Note  7 — The  Blessing  of  the  Italian  Troop. 

Laurence  Oliphant,  in  his  "  Episodes  of  a  Life  of 
Adventure,"  says:  "I  remember  standing  on  the 
steps  of  Saint  Peter's  while  Pope  Pio  Nono  gave  his 
blessing  to  the  volunteers  that  were  leaving  for  Lom- 
bardy  to  fight  the  Austrians,  and  seeing  the  big  tears 
roll  down  his  cheeks  —  as  I  suppose,  because  he  hated 
so  much  to  have  to  do  it "  [New  York  edition,  1887, 
page  21]. 

Note  8  —  Dates  of  Events. 

The  following  dates  will  enable  the  reader  to  better 
understand  the  relation  of  the  story  to  the  Roman  rev- 
olution of  1848  : 

March  5,  1848.  The  Romans  hear  of  the  February 
revolution  in  Paris,  which  was  due  more  to  the  action 
of  Pius  the  Ninth  than  to  any  other  man.  Count 
Pellegrino  Rossi,  a  friend  of  the  Pope,  and  the  rep- 
resentative of  Louis  Philippe  at  the  Vatican,  awaits 
only  the  arival  of  the  Republican  envoy  to  retire 
from  his  post. 


122  Notes 

March  14.     Pope  issues  a  liberal  constitution. 
March  21.     News    of   Vienna    revolution    reaches 

Rome, 
March  21-24.     Roman  forces,  blessed  by  the  Pope, 

march  under  Durando  to  the  frontier. 
March  3 1 .     Pope  addresses  an  appeal  for  moderation 

to  Roman  people. 
April  29.     Pope  disavows  the  war  of  liberation. 
June  10.     Durando  capitulates  to  Austrians. 
July  7.     Due  d'Harcourt,  envoy  of  French  Republic, 

not  yet  officially  recognized  by  Papal  Government. 
Sept.  1 6.      Pope  offends  French  Republic  by  appoint- 
ing Louis  Philippe's  former  mimster.  Count  Rossi, 

as  head  of  the  government. 
Nov.  I  5.      Rossi  is  assassinated  by  Zambianchi. 
Nov.  24.     Pope  escapes  from  Rome  in  carriage  of 

Countess  Spaur. 

Note  9  —  The  Wallachians. 

The  Wallachians,  or,  as  they  prefer  to  be  called, 
Dako-Roumanians,  form  more  than  half  the  population 
of  the  country,  and  committed  great  cruelties  in  1848. 
[See  Charles  Boner.] 

Note  10  —  Decebalus. 

Decebalus,  the  Dacian  chieftain,  was  conquered  by 
the  Roman  legions  of  Trajan  ;  and  the  dress  of  the 
Wallachians  to-day  resembles  that  of  the  bas-reliefs 


Notes  123 

of  the  vanquished  Dacians  on  Trajan's  column  at 
Rome. 

Note  i  1  —  Contract-Frauds. 

The  contractors  for  supplying  the  cattle  were  Italian 
Jews.  Jokai  has  copied  the  details  of  the  frauds  from 
the  official  reports  of  the  trial. 

Note  12 — **The  Forced  Recruit.'^ 

Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  founded  her  poem, 
"The  Forced  Recruit,"  upon  the  story  that  among 
the  Austrian  dead  a  Venetian  lad  was  found  whose 
musket  had  never  been  loaded.  He  whispered  to  the 
man  who  shot  him  that  he  preferred  to  be  killed  by 
his  countrymen  rather  than  kill  them.  The  Bersag- 
lieri  stripped  off  his  Austrian  uniform,  and  buried  him 
with  their  own  dead.  The  Baden  revolutionist,  Gustav 
von  Struve,  says  in  his  **Geschichte  des  Revoludons- 
Zeitalters"  [New  York,  1859],  page  714,  that  on 
July  11,  1848,  the  Hungarian  Parliament,  led  by 
Batthyany  and  Kossuth,  voted  with  236  votes  against 
33  to  aid  the  Hapsburg  government  with  troops  to 
defeat  Carlo  Alberto,  the  King  of  Sardinia  in  Italy. 
They  were  bitterly  punished  for  helping  thus  to  force 
upon  Italy  the  fetters  which  they  themselves  would 
gladly  spurn,  and  up  to  the  battle  of  Sadowa  they  had 
to  bear  the  consequences  ;  whereas  if,  in  1 848,  they 
had  refused  to  fight  against  Italy,  and  had  reserved  their 


124  Notes 

forces  for  the  legitimate  work  of  self-defense,  they 
might  possibly  have  escaped  the  disaster  of  Vilagos. 
Is  this  perhaps  the  lesson  that  Jokai  would  teach  his 
people  by  the  story  ?  It  is  one  that  many  other 
oppressed  nationalities  might  take  to  heart  with  advan- 
tage. 

Note  i  3  — Bibliography. 

The  mere  bibliography  of  the  subject  on  which  this 
novel  is  based  would  fill  a  larger  volume  than  this.  I 
will  mention  only  three  of  the  works  most  accessible  to 
English  readers,  which,  treating  of  the  Vienna  policy 
up  to  1 850,  go  far  to  explain  the  causes  of  the  present 
decadence  of  the  Austrian  Monarchy.  These  are  ( i ) 
*'The  Crimes  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  against  its 
own  Liege  Subjects,"  by  Frank  W.  Newman,  brother 
of  the  late  Cardinal  J.  H.  Newman  [London,  John 
Chapman].  (2)  "Memoirs  of  the  Court,  Aris- 
tocracy, and  Diplomacy,  of  Austria,"  by  Doctor  E. 
Vehse  [London,  Longmans,  1856].  (3)  "History 
of  the  Protestant  Church  in  Hungary  up  to  1850," 
with  Introduction  by  J.  H.  Merle  d'Aubigne,  D.D. 
[Boston,  Phillips,  Sampson  &  Co.,  1854]. 


p,   OOA 


